Crawler is a definite shake up of IDLES formula, seeing the band take a far more personal and experimental approach than any of their prior works.
Words: Dominic Gibson.
IDLES have been one of the most prominent names in the recent wave of British post-punk revival, with their visceral, politically charged and often cuttingly sardonic writing helping gain the band critical acclaim and commercial success. Crawler is the band’s fourth studio album and sees the band take a far more personal and experimental approach than any of their prior works.
The band’s previous album Ultra-Mono was released during the 2020 lockdown; and whilst it highlighted that the band is nearly unrivalled in creating bombastic anthems that lay bare modern Britain’s issues, like mental health and toxic masculinity, it didn’t show the band to be evolving in any meaningful way. Ultra-Mono lacked some of the slower tracks off their two prior albums, Joy as an Act of Resistance and Brutalism, and whilst these slower moments aren’t the band’s core appeal these tracks not only lend their albums better pacing but also allow the band to explore more intimate and often darker subject matters. Lead singer Joe Talbot has recently talked about the failings of Ultra-Mono. He explained that it was supposed to be a caricature of what people expected from IDLES, marking the close of one chapter in the band’s discography with Crawler being the start of something new.
As expected, Crawler is a definite shake up of IDLES formula. It retains some of the sound and fury that the band are known for, but it also introduces slower moments and experiments with new styles: a clear sign that the band has heeded the response to their previous album and is seeking to vary their sound. This change is clear from the start with the opening track ‘MTT 420 RR’, at first the song seems akin to ‘Colossus’ the bands opener from Joy as an Act of Resistance, its instrumentals slowly swelling to a crescendo. But instead of exploding into the expected bombastic close, the song continues building pressure before slowly fading out giving way to the next track. Guitarist Mark Bowen explains that this opener was a conscious subversion of expectations with the build of pressure without any sort of explosive release being the antithesis of IDLES’ earlier work. This is not to say that the album lacks the punch of the band’s prior work, if anything it has one of the most enjoyably abrasive songs in the band’s entire discography in ‘Car Crash’, a savage track that sees raucous instrumental motifs building on the back of a heavy, steady drum beat before exploding with the simple but punchy chorus of ‘Smash, I’m a Car Crash’. On songs like this you can also see the instrumental exploration of the band as they play with distorted vocals and industrial guitars as well as using more unique production techniques such as vinyl acetate to degrade the drums and produce a harsher sound.
If there is one aspect of the album that deserves heavy praise, it is the band’s willingness to try new things. Beachland Ballroom is another great example of this; the song is a heart-breaking ballad that tackles the consequences of Talbot’s drug use and is probably the standout track of the album. It is phenomenal to see IDLES’ sound turn away from their trademark loud and chaotic anthems and instead put to use on a track that has taken cues from Motown soul. Talbot’s gravelly voice elevates the song, giving it a heart wrenching sincerity, whilst the instrumentals retain their kick despite staying more subdued. ‘The New Sensation’ is another standout on the album. Through the medium of an instructional dance song (something like the cha cha slide) Talbot here delivers a brutal rebuttal to recent calls for young people and those in creative industries to retrain into more 'useful jobs'. The song’s visceral imagery of the young breaking their bodies and giving up their lives to serve the interests of a government that's shown little care for them acts as a stark juxtaposition to the encouraging chorus instruction to 'do the new sensation'. This song highlights one of IDLES’ real talents; the dripping irony that they can imbue into their songs adds a level of dark humour, helping to prevent their music coming across as overly preachy. This style can also be seen in the penultimate song of the album ‘King Snake’ with Talbot’s description of himself as the ‘The jack of fuck all, the master of none’ fitting perfectly in a song about celebrating the fact you’re not important and the weight of the world isn’t on your back.
Substance abuse, cycles of addiction and self-destructive behaviour are the key themes of this album. Whilst IDLES’ previous work has touched upon some of these themes Crawler explores them far more personally, with Talbot discussing candidly his own fifteen-year battle with substance abuse. While the first half of the album deals with addiction and the destructive role that it’s had in Talbot’s life, the latter half confronts the road to recovery and coming to terms with associated trauma. Hence, despite the raw and personal nature of the album, it is also IDLES’ most optimistic work. The closing track of the album, ‘The End’, sees Talbot reassuring the listener that ‘in spite of it all life is beautiful’. This sentiment is prevalent throughout the latter part of the album as, while the narrative does not shy away from the hardships of recovery, it reassures the listener that life gets better – as Talbot declares on the title track ‘Yeah, I’m a fucking crawler, crawling hurts, but it works for me’. From interviews with the band, it’s clear that they had a narrative arc planned for Crawler and it serves the album well, helping tie together the varied stylistic choices on the album and providing more thematic cohesion than previous IDLES albums.
However, Crawler is not without its faults. Ironically, it’s the songs that fare closer to the band's previous work that tend to fall flat. The majority of the experimental songs work exceedingly well but those that follow the tried and true IDLES sound tend to also share the worst aspects of the band's discography. Songs like ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ and ‘Meds’ fail to bring much new to the table, feeling as if they could have appeared on any prior IDLES without much difficulty. Even the album’s better songs like ‘The New Sensation’ suffer from these issues: the song, despite a strong premise, begins to outstay its welcome as it heads into its fourth minute, when its chorus and instrumentals begin to feel repetitive.
In general, the second half of the album is much weaker than the first, ‘Crawl!’ and ‘The End’ act as good bookends for this part but the songs fail to have either the instrumental or narrative punch of the first half. Furthermore, the choice to have one of the most quiet and introspective songs on the album Progress followed by Wizz, a baffling 30 second snippet of pure noise, has a detrimental effect to the albums flow. ‘Wizz’ likely could have been left on the cutting room floor without much harm to the album's themes or message.
Crawler is thematically cohesive but creatively diverse and this combination serves the album well. As already mentioned, the cohesive narrative of the album holds its disparate sounds and styles together well, allowing the band to venture into new territory without the results being a mess. In particular, Beachland Ballroom is a testament to the success of the band’s experimentation with it easily rocketing its way into being one of the IDLES’ best songs.
In many ways, the fact that many of the Crawler’s weaker songs resemble the bands’ older style is evidence that IDLES needed to change their sound. If these experiments from Crawler are any indication, IDLES still have ample creative space to explore.
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