‘Ultra Mono’ seems to be the response to what happened to the band after the release of their popular second album and also trying to find ways to deal with the trauma and venerability, that was spoken about on 'Joy As An Of Resistance'. It is definitely a raging and epic attempt by the Bristol band, there is urgency in abundance and calls for each other to unify themselves to be able to understand one’s self better. We are given classic crashing guitars by both Bowen and Lee Kireman, while Adam Devenshire’s bass playing is so energised and Jon Beavis becoming more and more impressive on drums. Lyrically there is a play on the comments about Joe Talbot’s lyricis, which for me I find very charming and love how close to home they feel. Overall, IDLES and their third album will unify the lovers even more as it reinforces that they should not be seen as a one trick pony but a collection of monster stallions that are stomping their way to the top.
The running pulse of Dev’s bass playing opens the first track of the album, ‘War’. Then the band comes into life with passion as we hear Talbot sing about the ‘clang clang’ and ‘bang bang’ of the guns and god knows what, there is such a march and calling to arms about facing the hatred here. It is a fantastic opener and the riff that goes through the middle eight is very strong, it easily gets you going and ready to scream back ‘ANTI WAR’.
I then love the shift to the opening noises to one of the singles, ‘Grounds’, which is a brilliant dynamic shift by the band that has been rightly appreciated more and more since it was released. The beat is great and more importantly the lyrics are accessible and top draw, ‘saying my race and class ain’t suitable, so I raise my pink fist and say black is beautiful’. Also the ‘fee fi fo fo fum’ take with regards to hearing thunder which is the sound of strength of numbers, makes me chuckle every time and is so playful. With its passion to keep to the beat, the songs restraint (when comparing to the usual from the band) has a big impact on its delivery, it feels more dramatic and fitting to the ULTRA coming together of people, ready to fight for justice.
How many times have I played ‘Mr.Motivator’ before going for a run? Too many times but that is what it is intended for! ‘Like Connor McGregor with a samurai sword on roller blades’ is a great lyric that shows how much energy and wildness this song wants to give you, the chorus is shouting out for us to seize the day and oh boy….we can do it after this! ‘Anxiety’ follows which is another fresh number we hear on the LP, the bass line again being a strong part of the song. Joe sounds like classic him while claiming all the things that give him anxiety, the sense of acceptance of the emotion is his way to deal with the problem here. It then just builds more and more with ‘lahhhss ‘laaahss’ and shouting of the word anxiety, its rather enjoyable!
What was a lovely surprise to hear about ‘Ultra Mono’ was the small collaborations that are included on the album. After Jamie Cullum telling the band that if they needed any piano playing in their music then he will offer his talents (in an interview it was said a new idea was apparently created right there and then after that dialogue). Delicate and classic sounding piano playing by Jamie starts ‘Kill Them With Kindness’ before a slight grunge, stompy guitar riff plays out. This will be me being very picky here but I do find the song a bit too structured, there does need to be a shift to take us away from the riff. However the next song really does take us somewhere else with on the guitar riff, it really makes us feel that we are racing around the village that is spoken about in ‘Model Village’, the standout song on the album. We find Joe singing about the cultural issues we are surrounded and even suffocated by but fighting it by mocking and firing about vanity, ignorance and racism that is found within a dream that so many people dream want to live by. So many people want to simply follow what they think is desirable when in fact they are scared, become worthless and a bunch of bastards really.
‘Ne Touche Pas Moi’ features Jenny Beth for the chorus, which is needed for the subject matter of the song. Here, the song is simply about how woman and everyone has a right to enjoy their own space at gigs and wolf whistling, cat calling and objectifying behaviour is not welcomed AT ALL, ANYWHERE. Including Jenny Beth within the song really makes the song more of an inclusion to who the song is mostly for, it would have come across as a bit bad having Joe just singing this. Following on I have to say that reading about the background of the meaning of ‘Carcinogenic’, was interesting, yet I am not a huge fan of it despite the great guitar tones and rhythm of it all.
You can hear the bass focusing again on ‘Reigns’ and the way it opens up to include all the other members is impressive; also the tone does fit with the attacking nature of The Royal Family on the song. When the song reaches the chorus, the drive is immense as the guitars are thrashing through that has a great punk element to them! One thing that some people would have said about the previous albums is the lack of depth within the deeper cuts on them, however this track shows how this has a great standard from the singles to the deep cuts.
Yes it is a love song for them (‘The Lover’) and as Joe describes, you swear more when you feel more comfortable around people that you love. There is a sinister tone on this one though, it builds up and has tension which really takes me back to the imagery of thunder on ‘Grounds’. But then we have a very very very big shift of tone, something that really took everyone by surprise. ‘A Hymn’ will probably be the closest the guys will get to a ballad, nevertheless the emotion and fragility on this single is incredible. You feel like you are looking up to the sky after the storm as the blue sky is cracking through the clouds, a sense of hope is being found within such desperation that is brilliantly captured with the subtle playing of the drums and guitar. ‘A Hymn’ is a significant piece of music in their discography, an impressive attempt to really be bold with the delicacy of such a song.
To close the album, the name is thank you in German (I remember my year 8 German lessons)! ‘Danke’ has a wacky guitar opening that has some awesome drumming, something that really stood out to me more so on this album. You feel like it is going to be a full on instrumental until the cries of the band arrive, it is a real fun end to the album that is filled with the same grit, determination and passion that we heard at the start.
Written by Tom Bedding
@bringmethemusic_
Comments