IDLES Return With Second Single ‘Car Crash’ Taken From Their Forthcoming Album ‘Crawler’, Out November 12th Via Partisan
IDLES today have shared the second single from their forthcoming new album ‘Crawler’, which is set for release November 12th via Partisan Records. ‘Car Crash’ follows the comeback single ‘The Beachland Ballroom’, which was a heartfelt and brutally honest track that reflected frontman Joe Talbots struggles with addiction.
The band are clearly looking to unshackle themselves to a formula that is perhaps expected from them and to be honest it’s frankly very refreshing. Although their music has always been brutally honest it’s always been delivered through a sound that allows the crowd to explode with energy. This energy was then harnessed into punk positivity with their sophomore release ‘Joy As An Act Of Resistance’. This was also felt through 2020’s ‘Ultra Mono’, perhaps the bands most refined release. Now, the band are perhaps reflecting on how far they’ve come and it’s allowing them to take a deep dive at their darkest moments, which is why both singles have been darker, slower, and somewhat more piercing than any music they’ve released before.
‘Car Crash’ details a near fatal experience he had behind a wheel, a moment that could of changed his life forever. This energy is felt throughout the new track as the intense sound pulses and grows. The tension throughout is so thick not even the sharpest knife could penetrate it. It’s an overwhelming listen but one that is extremely powerful.
Speaking on the track Mark Bowen, guitarist and co-producer of IDLES said: We wanted it to be as violent as possible to reflect that event. I really wanted it to be this sonic touchstone. We recorded the drums beforehand and put them on a vinyl acetate. Whenever you replay an acetate, because it is kind of like a liquid, it degrades every time. It touches on things being transient and momentary — even a single drum hit. It’s like a memory, when the moment has passed and you deal with the repercussions over and over again, and they morph and change into something else. It’s one of the first times on an IDLES song where we used proper effects on the vocals — it was Joe going through my pedal board, so you get both clarity and degradation.”
The video that is made by Matthew Cusick and edited by IDLES’ Lee Kiernan reflects the intensity of the story. A project started as far back as 2001 and is a video that catalogues a variety if car chases from 20th century American cinema. Speaking on the video Cusick says: “It is a gut wrenching, symbiotic conclusion to the piece. It has now what it was always missing… a killer soundtrack.”
Listen/watch ‘Car Crash’ here:
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