IDLES
Joy As an Act of Resistance
It is a rare occasion indeed when an album is released that is so filled to the brim with vitriol, cynicism, derision, criticism, and bile that you begin to wonder what is wrong with the world. Unfortunately, in 2018, it is only too obvious, and such an album as Joy As an Act of Resistance is not only valid, but absolutely necessary.
Idles created one of the best and harshest albums of 2017 with their first full-length Brutalism. Never before has an album so lived up to its name as that one. And it too was exactly what we needed to hear. But if Brutalism was the best at describing 2017, Joy... is the best at RESPONDING to 2018.
Joy... finds Idles at their loudest, their most discordant, their fastest and their most furious. Every sound is dripping with glorious reverb and harsh, angular production. One of the few to wear their influences so obviously on their sleeve and yet still sound original, Idles fills the space with nasty, greasy textures culled straight from the Jesus Lizard, Swans, and late-career Neu. Everything has only improved with their increasing anger.
Joe Talbot's lyrics and delivery have also increased ten-fold; every syllable feels screamed at full-throat, even when it's not. His precise command of language makes each statement sound profound and truthful, whether he's blasting roided gym rats as in "Never Fight a Man with a Perm," or lamenting over the stillbirth of his first child on "June." The reality he paints is tragic, terrifying, and ripe for revolution.
All the elements of absolute sonic destruction are there: cacophony, wall-of-sound, the angriest boy on Earth; and Joy... builds a Jungian wall with them before "Rottweiler" melts it down in a thermite fire of noise and emotion. The disaster is set, the deconstruction has begun, the hinges are totally off, and there it is...the end...
Smash it...
Ruin it...
Destroy the world...
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