Following the soul-soaked comeback single “The Beachland Ballroom” and the abrasive “Car Crash” today they release a new single “When The Lights Come On”. With its motorik rhythm and propulsive bass lines, the track harks back to the days when frontman and lyricist Joe Talbot would DJ in Bristol clubs until the early hours, chasing the party into the night only to be confronted by the harsh realities that turning the lights on can expose. See Below the Lee Kiernan directed Video.

The band will also embark on a sold-out (bar one date) European tour in the new year. With 4 nights at London’s Brixton Academy, 3 at Manchester’s Victoria Warehouse, and 3 at Glasgow’s iconic Barrowland Ballroom, the tour is set to delight fans with their signature socially aware take on manic aggression. See full ticket information here.

Clearly bored of having downtime, the band have also taken on an excess of extra-curricular activities including remixing St. Vincent’s track “Pay Your Way in Pain”, and working with literal guitar legend Tom Morello (from Rage Against the Machine of course) on a track from his solo outing The Atlas Underground Flood, The Batchelor. They are even choosing to round out the year playing with The Strokes on New Year’s Eve at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

.@IdlesBand put their spin on a @St_Vincent single https://t.co/FTyybyIibv

— Pitchfork (@pitchfork) December 9, 2021

The release of CRAWLER back in November was marked with a show at EartH in Hackney, London. IDLES were insistent on making this a show to remember, giving out records at the end of the show, inviting fans on stage, and clambering into the audience themselves to sing Christmas songs in the middle of November.

Regarding the new single, lead singer, Joe Talbot, explained, “When the lights come on. Our third offering from Crawler. A poem of light and sound exploring the cold light of day. Thank you x”.

 All the dates to their 2022 tour are sold out, the only exception at the moment being the final Brixton Academy date, see below for more details.

 16/01/2022- O2 Academy Brixton- London
17/01- O2 Academy Brixton- London
18/01- O2 Academy Brixton- London
19/01- O2 Academy Brixton- London
21/01- Motorpoint Arena Cardiff- Cardiff
22/01- O2 Academy- Birmingham
24/01- Vicar Street- Dublin
25/01- Vicar Street- Dublin
26/01- Vicar Street- Dublin
28/01- O2 Victoria Warehouse- Manchester
29/01- O2 Victoria Warehouse- Manchester
30/01- O2 Victoria Warehouse- Manchester
01/02- O2 Academy- Sheffield
02/02- O2 City Hall- Newcastle
03/02- Barrowland Ballroom- Glasgow
04/02- Barrowland Ballroom- Glasgow
05/02- Barrowland Ballroom- Glasgow

“CRAWLER” is our album. We love it so much & cannot wait to see it manifest. Thank you to all who have supported us throughout the pandemic, allowing us the grace of time & safety to reflect and make our most lucid work to date.

LOVE

OUT NOW: https://t.co/cgG3UgsdE0 pic.twitter.com/xeqJ3j5LUP

— I D L E S (@idlesband) November 12, 2021

Prior to the album’s release, the band put out two singles: “The Beachland Ballroom” in September, and “Car Crash” earlier this month. These singles showed-off two completely different sides of the band, with The Beachland Ballroom featuring an almost punk-goes-soul instrumental, while “Car Crash” is defined by its menacing build, guitar feedback and distorted vocals.

As it would happen, this was only a miniscule glimpse into the sonic world of CRAWLER. The album delivers a myriad of different sounds, such as the brooding, buzzing electronic sound of album opener “MTT 420”, the atmospheric guitar soundscape of “When The Lights Come On” and the surf rock-esque sound of “Stockholm Syndrome”. There are most certainly echoes of past albums strewn throughout, with aggressive vocals and prominent, grinding basslines, however it would be an understatement to say that CRAWLER marks a clear evolutionary step for the band.

In a recent interview with NME, singer Joe Talbot spoke of a change in his mindset from the scathing anger of Ultra Mono, saying; “I’m not defensive, I’m not angry. I’m not scared anymore, and I was when I wrote that album…There was so much going on around me and I was losing control of our narrative. Instead of being mindful and holding myself accountable, I was fighting.”

Talbot also stated that between Ultra Mono and CRAWLER, the band has “taken control” of their narrative; “I was in therapy for two years, and it made me realise that I was angry at the wrong people. The critics weren’t the ones that were wrong – I was. It’s beautiful, because now I can see ‘Ultra Mono’ for what it is – an amazing live album, with a few songs where I was really lost.”

CRAWLER is available on all streaming services, and the band also has numerous vinyl variants and other physical media of the album available for purchase.

IDLES will also be embarking on a UK tour in January of next year, and also have one more UK show left this year. The upcoming tour will include four consecutive shows at O2 Brixton Academy in London. Tickets can be bought here, and the dates are listed below.

2021 Dates

18/11/2021- EartH Hall- London

2022 Dates

 16/01/2022- O2 Academy Brixton- London
17/01- O2 Academy Brixton- London
18/01- O2 Academy Brixton- London
19/01- O2 Academy Brixton- London
21/01- Motorpoint Arena Cardiff- Cardiff
22/01- O2 Academy- Birmingham
24/01- Vicar Street- Dublin
25/01- Vicar Street- Dublin
26/01- Vicar Street- Dublin
28/01- O2 Victoria Warehouse- Manchester
29/01- O2 Victoria Warehouse- Manchester
30/01- O2 Victoria Warehouse- Manchester
01/02- O2 Academy- Sheffield
02/02- O2 City Hall- Newcastle
03/02- Barrowland Ballroom- Glasgow
04/02- Barrowland Ballroom- Glasgow
05/02- Barrowland Ballroom- Glasgow

The new track “Car Crash” “sees the band operating free from constraints and unshackled from any notions of what an IDLES song should sound like“. It showcases frontman Joe Talbot’s own near-fatal experience behind the wheel. “It’s the horrific, comedown hangover — waking up in the morning and realising the smashes, like, what the fuck am I doing with my life?” he said in a statement.

The video that accompanies the song has been created by Matthew Cusick and edited by Idles Lee Klernan. The project began in 2001 when “Cusick took a break from painting and began digitally cataloguing car chase scenes from 20th-century American cinema as an extension of his paintings and map collages. Appropriating footage from as early as the Keystone Cops, Cusick assembled “File on Motor Transgression, 2001-2011” by condensing more than 500 car chases into a navigation of the American landscape throughout cinematic history”.  

On collaborating with the band, Cusick said: “It is a gut wrenching, symbiotic conclusion to the piece. It has now what it was always missing… a killer soundtrack“.

Co-producer and guitarist Mark Bowen added: “We wanted it to be as violent as possible to reflect that event. I really wanted it to be this sonic touchstone. We recorded the drums beforehand and put them on a vinyl acetate. Whenever you replay an acetate, because it is kind of like a liquid, it degrades every time. It touches on things being transient and momentary — even a single drum hit. It’s like a memory, when the moment has passed and you deal with the repercussions over and over again, and they morph and change into something else. It’s one of the first times on an IDLES song where we used proper effects on the vocals — it was Joe going through my pedal board, so you get both clarity and degradation”. You can watch the video below.

Last night Idles appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! performing the latest single “The Beachland Ballroom”, making their U.S late-night TV debut. “It’s the most important song on the album, really,” said Talbot.

“There’s so many bands that go through the small rooms and dream of making it into the big rooms. Being able to write a soul tune like this made me go, fuck — we’re at a place where we’re actually allowed to go to these big rooms and be creative and not just go through the motions and really appreciate what we’ve got. The song is an allegory of feeling lost and getting through it. It’s one that I really love singing.” Watch Idles performing below.

Idles new album Crawler can be pre-ordered here. The band also starts a UK tour next year, more info about the dates and venues can be found in the latest mxdwn article.

Photo credit: Press/Tom Ham

The talks between Idles frontman and the fans will start in The Y Theatre in Leicester on 19th November, then in The Foundry in Sheffield on the 20th November and finally in London’s Sebright Arms on 4th December. Get your tickets here. The shows will also have live music from OK Cane, Hands Off Gretal and Cat SFX.

On sale now! @idlesband’s Joe Talbot In Conversation with Alan McGee https://t.co/O2XcMrcAsS pic.twitter.com/DBr3hRllJL

— The Y Theat-aaargh! (@TheYTheatre) October 25, 2021

Live Q&A talk with Talbot will come shortly after the release of Idles’ new album Crawler that is out on 12th November. The upcoming record delves into “the worst years of my life but also the best, the most brilliant” Idles frontman said about the album. “If you don’t like hearing tales of struggle then you won’t like it. But it makes me feel happy because I’m here. I’m alive.”

Last month the band released “the most important song” from the upcoming album, “Beachland Ballroom”. “The song is sort of an allegory of feeling lost and getting through it. It’s one that I really love singing” explained Talbot. 

At the moment Idles are in the middle of their 23 dates North America tour that’s been sold out. The band will tour UK and Ireland, starting off next year January. More info about the tickets and dates you can find in mxdwn article here.

Meanwhile, in a recent interview with Mojo, Joe Talbot commented about Idles’ latest album Ultra Mono, which came out during the pandemic. It was released in September 2020, when live music in the UK was out of the question. “I think that album translated badly as a home-listening device. The whole point of that record was to build a narrative with our audience” he said. 

“The album itself was a caricature of what people thought of us and we wanted to kind of twist that up and then burn that effigy so we would start ‘Crawler’” he added. Ultra Mono been well translated for the fans as the album reached No1 in the UK Charts and stayed there for a whole week. 

He said that another version of the old albums cant be made anymore “because we’ve done it. To death“. “We’ve done the biggest loudest most brash big rock album version of ourselves we can and we won’t go back there. We have to move forward“.

Idles has recently been added as a headliner in next year 2000Trees festival. It will take place between 6-10th July 2022, more info you can find here.

The fourth studio album Crawler is out on 12th November and can be pre-ordered here. 

Angelic and raw Idles return with a song that is driven and shares the untold treasure that is Joel Talbot’s voice as he approaches his lead with a new angle. “It’s the most important song on the album, really,” says Joel Talbot, frontman, in NME. He continued: “The song is sort of an allegory of feeling lost and getting through it. It’s one that I really love singing.“. This is the first thing Idles has released since they covered Metallica’s “The God That Failed”. This new song shows off the band’s range while bringing us into the new era in a spectacular way with the accompanied emotion-fueled video. Which you can watch below.

Idles’ fourth album Crawler is set to release November 12th. The album consists of 14 songs, including the latest single “The Beachland Ballroom”, coming out just a year after 2020’s Ultra Mono. Recorded at Real World Studios in Bath during the pandemic. Preorder your copy here.

Our fourth album “CRAWLER” out on 12th November 2021.

Pre-Order now: https://t.co/ilhoFf03wwpic.twitter.com/g2oAZF9F9Y

— I D L E S (@idlesband) September 28, 2021

Tracklisting for Crawler:

1. MTT 420 RR
2. The Wheel
3. When the Lights Come On
4. Car Crash
5. The New Sensation
6. Stockholm Syndrome
7. The Beachland Ballroom
8. Crawl!
9. Meds
10. Kelechi
11. Progress
12. Wizz
13. King Snake
14. The End

Idles are set to tour North America this coming October, followed by a number of sold-out shows across the UK in early 2022. This will include a four-day sold-out stop at Brixton’s lush O2 Academy. Get your tickets, if they haven’t already been swallowed up, here.

Idles 2022 UK tour dates:

16/01/22- O2 Academy Brixton- London
17/01- O2 Academy Brixton- London
18/01- O2 Academy Brixton- London
19/01- O2 Academy Brixton- London
21/01- Motorpoint Arena- Cardiff
22/01- O2 Academy- Birmingham
24/01- Vicar Street- Dublin
25/01- Vicar Street- Dublin
26/01- Vicar Street- Dublin
28/01- O2 Victoria Warehouse- Manchester
29/01- O2 Victoria Warehouse- Manchester
30/01- O2 Victoria Warehouse- Manchester
01/02- O2 Academy- Sheffield
02/02- O2 City Hall- Newcastle
03/02- Barrowland Ballroom- Glasgow
04/02- Barrowland Ballroom- Glasgow
05/02- Barrowland Ballroom- Glasgow