On IDLES’ new album, “Love is the fing”.
That’s the message that reigns throughout TANGK, the Bristol band’s fifth album, lulling you into a trance as it’s repeated hypnotically at the end of POP POP POP. It's a message in keeping with their transition from punchy, political noise-rock to more experimental and introspective post-punk. Overtly political cuts such as Mother, Danny Nedelko and Great make way here for more intimate, personal numbers such as the emotional A Gospel and Grace, where, once more, Joe Talbot's central mantra is “Love is the fing”. Where IDLES' early records delivered gut-punch attacks on society’s ills, TANGK dials down the rage and finger-pointing in favour of a gentler, more introspective tone, as first explored on 2021's Crawler.
