Right at the core of Joy as an Act of Resistance is the hippie movement. Not the peace and love we now apply to keeping sane in the dying world around us but a sense of dancing through the panic. It is all we have, Joe Talbot warns us on Idles’ second record, Joy as an Act of Resistance. There is defiance in dance and for Idles and their usual punchy proclamations of horrifying cultural realisations, it acts as a bed of worry. Forgive the sins and do what you can to make it through the day – the reactionary cause and effect of a band who sees their first efforts on Brutalism as not brutal enough. Tensions bubble over, the strain of the real world upon them, building violently on opener Colossus, and what fun it is.
These are the most barbed and best of Idles – or at least that is the initial reaction to hearing so many moments, sounds and slices of recognisable moments. It is just Colossus and Never Fight A Man With A Perm, incredible efforts with the spit-filled rage only the best of in-touch punk has. Know your place on I’m Scum and wear it as a badge of pride, as Idles does. There is reinvention whirring away, the sense of pain and anger endured and identified on the charming, grinding gears of life as Danny Nedelko sees it. Explosions of percussion and gritty rage on Love Song highlight the constant feeling Idles has – the fear for the future of the working class, as it becomes absorbed into the cultural death knell, rings louder.
June finds those crackling worries in full swing, the meditative and droning underscores as Talbot delivers some sermon-like vision of the future, a thumping, stunning accomplishment. Ernest Hemingway is given an overhaul, and the warning shots are soon turned toward the listener. Get your head in the game or fall to the prey of advertising and television. Television is a suitably rage-induced look into the world around us and the clawing hopes of marketing tools telling us we are not perfect – it is a message that Talbot takes to heart. He is keen to display his conviction for these beliefs time and time again and often does so with punching guitar work and clinical metaphors which leave no room for wonder. Joy as an Act of Resistance results in a straight-talking and fuming frontman hitting out like he did on Brutalism, though his focus is honed, and the instrumentals are spirited.
Burn the bridges and close the doors as Great rallies against the UK – and rightly so. Biting and venomous as necessary in the dark days of the world, Idles have their fingers on the pulse of the world around them. Joy as an Act of Resistance may be their most in-touch work before they sprouted off and started commenting internally rather than looking out at the horrors. Every band must change and adapt, their work on Tangk sounds introspective instead of anger aimed at the world. Sometimes it takes self-reflection to force a new reaction, and Idles does both on this record here. Their screaming and whining electronics, the engine-like force of closer Rottweiler has the passionate and rage room instrumental style necessary for capturing their punk tone. Long may it continue.
