This is their most beautiful album so far. IDLES had so much love to give, they’ll receive twice as many as they’ve released Tangk. Review, with heart eyes.
TANGK – IDLES
Calmer in many aspects, Tangk is also absolutely electrical and keeps the same bite with which IDLES first emerged. Precise, their compositions are also as raw as they’re tender. This ambiguity is at the heart of this fifth record’s concept: love. Because even the most tender love can be brutally raw. The need to give and receive some has sparked its whole creation. Joe Talbot and his mates are, therefore, allowing themselves to explore different genres. They’re doing so by keeping their gripping and incisive post-punk trademark. For instance, with disco – well, punk-sparkled disco – with Dancer, and backing vocals by LCD Soudsystem. A surprising collaboration, that works so well here!
Their hyper-textured sound reflects many emotional states. For IDEA 01, they initiate the bomb the rest of the record is. Clear notes shining in the dark, Talbot’s discreet and broken vocals, all set in an ice-cold atmosphere… And yet, there’s something soft and warm in it all. Killer rhythms and fucking effective choruses, they do it so well. Gift Horse and Hall Oates are out of this world; POP POP POP and Grace are impossible to forget; Roy is a hypnotic story with passionate and dark pop-rock accents. A Gospel gets off the beaten tracks too, and hits me to my core. Time stretches then. IDLES has always been honest and frank, here, it’s different.
On top of exceptional sound work, the band offers their full heart to their audience. And that comes without any warning, for them or us. The calm urgency of Jungle; the powerful liberation of Gratitude; the whispered greatness of Monolith… they conclude the record as well as it started. Each growl, each pinch, and each imperceptible movement are translated musically so precisely. If I was expecting a beautiful album, I was not expecting it to move me so much. Tangk by IDLES, it’s when your heart goes boom without a fair warning. It’s love.
