IDLES
Artist
IDLES, a quintet featuring BIMM Bristol lecturer Lee Kiernan on guitar and graduate Jon Beavis on drums, have experienced a truly phenomenal rise to fame.
They released their debut album, Brutalism, in 2017, followed by Joy as an Act of Resistance in 2018. The latter peaked at no.2 in the Official UK Albums Chart, and in the same year, Beavis was listed as one of Music Radar’s 13 best rock drummers in the world. Soon after receiving a nomination for British Breakthrough Act at the BRIT Awards, the band undertook an almost entirely sold-out 47-date tour across the UK, Europe and the USA.
In September 2020, IDLES released their third studio album, Ultra Mono, which charted at no.1 in the UK’s Official Albums Chart. Vinyl sales skyrocketed, with Ultra Mono overtaking Liam Gallagher’s release as the fastest-selling vinyl album of 2020, shifting 15,400 copies in the first week. Ultra Mono tackles many different themes, including the modern sociopolitical climate, class struggle, mental health, toxic masculinity, and the positive and negative aspects of the band’s newfound fame.
Their 2021 album, Crawler, received a very respectable Metacritic rating of 84/100. The album deviates sonically from their usual punk sound, no doubt in part through their collaboration with hip-hop producer Kenny Beats. In an interview with Rolling Stone, frontman Joe Talbot described Crawler as “a more playful and indulgent album where we got to really get into what we truly love, which is not just rock & roll.”
TANGK, their fifth studio album, was released in 2024. Produced by Nigel Godrich, Kenny Beats, and IDLES guitarist Mark Bowen, the record is their most adventurous and creative yet. It’s ultimately a collection of love songs, with lyrics that radiate empathy and gratitude – a stark contrast from the anger and frustration we see in earlier albums. TANGK has shown a different side to IDLES, further cementing their reputation as one of the most exciting bands of this generation.
