Idlewild - 'Love Steals Us From Loneliness' (Parlophone)
3/5
By: JJ Florio
A question: is familiarity the one thing that, as humans, keeps us all returning to the same consumerist juncture? Take fast food. Even though it's shit, is the fact that we can order a meal in London, jump on a plane and have almost precisely the same culinary experience in Deli the key to its success? Perhaps a factor in the enduring appeal of established bands lies within this same sense of familiarity. Without berating or applauding, take the new U2 album as an example; on hearing 'Vertigo', it was clear that we have something that sounds undeniably like a U2 song. Something that fans across the globe would recognise, feel comfortable with and hold to their bosoms like a long lost friend. Yet, ultimately, sickening.
If this first single, 'Love Steals Us From Loneliness', is to provide a clue as to the direction of the forthcoming Idlewild record ('Warnings/Promises' out early March, penny-savers) then we can conclude that we are to be grazing on lushly familiar pastures. On display here are all the trademarks (the Idle-isms, if you will) that have propelled this band over their ten-year career to date; the REM-like stadia-ambition, the anthemic choruses and the Morrissey-in-LA vox.
And rather than having been altered, this meal has been super-sized as we are taken by the hand and eased gently into a big intro, through to an even bigger verse which, leads us happily to the bigger still singalong chorus, all set to a backdrop of sweeping guitars and hugely cavernous drums. The typically reflective (and, at times, ambiguous) lyrical content that defined previous singles like 'American English' and 'Roseability' are also on display with the hook line, 'You said something steals us from loneliness, happy birthday, are you lonely?'
Though this is not going to convert any non-believers to this Scottish band's cause, the Idlewild faithful with undoubtedly feast upon this with reliable relish.
Artists in this article: Idlewild
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