Q&a / ‘Burn it down, kill it and move on’: Idles on how new album Tangk goes beyond ‘angry’ post-punk politics, and working with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy

Feb 11 , 2024

British rock band Idles talk to Style ahead of the release of fifth album Tangk. Photo: @idlesband/Instagram

Idles are redefining its rowdy, preachy reputation with love-filled 5th album Tangk – Style spoke exclusively to frontman Joe Talbot about British politics, ‘faking’ his class … and King Charles

Guitarist Mark Bowen talks working with LCD on ‘Dancer’ and sharing co-production credits with Nigel Godrich – who helped Beck, Here We Go Magic and Radiohead through similar sonic reinventions

Idles are at a crossroads. Arguably the last noteworthy guitar band to emerge in the 2010s, the British post-punks became fast festival favourites – thanks to the retro cross-cut guitar assault, soapbox-worthy choruses and inclusive megaphone-messaging of politics big and small, found on dynamite debut LP Brutalism (2017) and even better follow-up Joy as an Act of Resistance (2018).

But after two pandemic-era attempts to slay the beast they created – via the deliberately “grotesque” caricature Ultra Mono (2020) and the sonically ambitious Crawler (2021) – the British quintet are dismantling and discarding that incendiary image for good with fifth outing Tangk. It is an album “of gratitude of love” and has the potential to redefine Idles as a serious artistic force for decades to come. So it’s definitely a crossroads – not a cul-de-sac.

Idles lead singer Joe Talbot onstage in Hong Kong, at Clockenflap, in December 2023. Photo: Jonathan Wong

On the eve of that album’s release, slated for February 16, we caught up with outspoken singer Joe Talbot and guitarist/producer Mark Bowen backstage at Hong Kong’s Clockenflap festival to talk about working with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, “pretending” to be working class, and why they just might be the last great guitar band to make it.

You were meant to play Clockenflap in 2019. It finally happened. In that time, the pandemic gave us a chance to reset and fix a lot that was wrong with the world … but we squandered it.

Talbot: The world is a very complex and big place, my man. I don’t think Covid had much to do with anything except the progress of the right[-wing politics] – but people were already voting for the right-wing side of things because they were scared financially and seeking comfort in blaming other people, predominantly brown, poor people. So, f*** the king.

One of Idles’ songs, “Mother”, features the lyrics, “The best way to scare a Tory is to read and get rich”. Photo: @idlesband/Instagram

One of my favourite lyrics of yours is, “The best way to scare a Tory is to read and get rich”, from 2017 breakout single “Mother”. All that preaching didn’t work, did it?

Talbot: That’s not true. It’s not a collective thing – I spoke for myself, it wasn’t preaching. I was telling you how I feel, and I still feel the same. I still despise the Tories, and the general public’s [opinion] have nothing to do with my opinion. [But] that’s not to say it didn’t work with them.