Idlewild: Post Electric Blues

Well, smug car-model dismissals will have to hold us until somebody other than me has actually heard it.

I've been playing it heavily for a few weeks and I enthusiastically second glenn's "awesome". I thought they had tremendous potential at the time of The Remote Part, but mild disappointment with Warnings/Promises turned into complete indifference with Make Another World. In that sense, this one's been the biggest, most pleasant surprise of the year for me. Definitely a "come home" kind of moment.

^this makes me interested, as i thought they were a fantastic band up to and including remote part, but warnings was such a disappointment that i got off the bus completely..

also echoing glenn's comments upthread about the quality of many of their b-sides

As my fourth (fifth?) listen finishes, it occurs to me that this also reminds me, in overall buoyant openness if not exact particulars, of the Boo Radleys' Wake Up!. And "Readers & Writers", in particular, is a small circus packed into a sub-3:00 pop song on the grand order of "Ana Ng", and could easily be my song of the year if I had to pick one at the halfway point.

finally got around to hearing this, it's quite immediate and i do think it's almost a return to 'remote part'-era form. they're still a long way (and will probably permanently remain so) from the band who i fell in love with for making "annihilate now" but it feels like they've lost some of their complacency and the limpwristedness that made the last couple of records such a snore

been reacquainting myself with these guys and I wish I'd thought to nominate either of the first two albums to the emo poll - they absolutely count imho

also learned that Roddy Woomble has *six* solo albums jfc

oh yeah the first two albums definitely would've counted. also what a coincidence simon, the guitarist in my band has been trying to get me to listen to hope is important for years and i finally gave it a shot last week

in the first-three-albums era they cranked out so many good songs, tons of great b-sides. The later albums are worthwhile too, just a little less exciting.

I second all these opinions, I used to love this band during their first 3 albums.

Ha, they were my favorite band all through the '00s, tho I never imagined I'd find anyone praising them on here. I'd urge those '09 posters to give Make Another World another shot. If we're talking about the early albums in terms of emo then that's their (at least partially) pop-punk record. It's got some hooks. In Competition for the Worst Time, No Emotion, Ghost in the Arcade... these are tunes.

Am I the only one who heard (and, uh, helped fund) Everything Ever Written? It was pretty good at best, a bit routine, though I thought "Radium Girl" was great and hinted at the kind of album they could make if they fully embraced wooden ideas, er, pop.

There are some really good songs on ‘Make Another World’.

Agreed. After that one I pretty much tap out - the last album is unbelievably sleepy.

It felt weird to find the new one stocked at the record store yesterday, after years of imports followed by years of crowdfunding. I thought I knew all five people in the U.S. who care about this band. Anyway, I strained to enjoy the last album but Interview Music is requiring no effort: it's fun! Something like the album I was dreaming of in my last post. Plus Roddy using this voice again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJj_D1qnWGY

Weird to see this bumped, I was listening to 100 Broken Windows and The Remote Part this morning. I don't think I've listened to either of them for years. 'You Held the World in Your Arms' sounded to me like one of the best songs of the '00s... I don't remember ever thinking that at the time of its release, as much as I liked it.

While I'm here, here's Idlewild POX:

Let Me Sleep (Next to the Mirror)
Mistake Pageant
Live in a Hiding Place
Out of Routine
Tell Me Ten Words
Love Steals Us from Loneliness
In Competition for the Worst Time
A Ghost in the Arcade
Take Me Back to the Islands
Radium Girl

Out of Routine is one of my all-time favourites