Idlewild
100 Broken Windows
Capitol/Odeon/Food
Release Date: 2001
For a country that played such a seminal role in the development of punk rock, things have been awfully quiet in Great Britain lately. While the U.S. rediscovered its punk roots in the mid-Nineties via the huge success of Green Day, Offspring, and Rancid, our British counterparts went back a decade further and glorified the mod world of Swinging London with the Britpop renaissance. However, if Edinburgh's Idlewild is any indication, the Spirit of '76 might finally be gearing up to show it's ugly head to the world again.
Idlewild's sophomore effort, 100 Broken Windows, gets off to a rollicking start with "Little discourage", all loping garage-rock verses exploding into a raucous foot-to-the-distortion pedal sing-along chorus. "I don't have the map" follows using the same formula, though slightly less successfully as on the lead-off track. "These wooden ideas" is next, and - guess what? - it sounds even more pedestrian than "map". Beginning to detect a trend here? Yep - it seems like Idlewild is stuck in the whole Pixies/Nirvana trap of quiet verse-loud chorus. A trap which has been quite played out over the last decade, to say the least. The rest of the album basically stays the course, with few real stinkers yet nothing really spectacular, either. And that's ultimately what makes 100 broken windows such a frustrating record - that these guys do seem to have a lot going for them. Idlewild's got energy in spades, a strong vocalist in Roddy Woomble (think Morrissey crossed with Damon Albarn), the occasional astoundingly clever lyric, and the ability to write maddeningly catchy pop songs ("Roseability"). However, their whole early R.E.M. meets the Pistols cut with '90s alt-rock schtick doesn't hold up across the 12-song span of 100 broken windows, especially when weighed down with lyrics which are, by and large, excruciatingly over-earnest. Time will tell whether or not Idlewild can develop enough to sustain a full-length album. As for now, though, Idlewild doesn't seem like much more than just another decent singles band.
-- John Hendrickson
juantcb@hotmail.com
John Hendrickson is a free-lance music writer and guitarist for Noisy-Le-Grand. He's originally from Boston and currently lives in Brooklyn.
