Idlewild shall be the first subject in my series of music blogs, welcome to the show :) Before you continue below you'll find a link for Spotify users to an accompanying Spotify playlist, and for users who don't use Spotify there's a flash playlist from playlist.com (note the track Make a New World has been mislabelled and Is actually called Everything (As It Moves))
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/user/freedoms_stain/playlist/1RF6SEI12IhiE3bHTO1I35
Some time in early 2000 (January probably, putting me at 14) my friend Mick c
ame round to have a go on the brand new PS2 I'd got for Christmas, bringing with him two CDs he'd nicked from his brothers collection, one the self titled début of American soft rockers Third Eye Blind, the other an album entitled 100 Broken Windows by a band called Idlewild. The music was an interesting mix of mid-paced soft rock and energetic grungy pop-punk, the cumulative effect nothing short of outstanding. I needed little persuasion to copy the album on the spot (using the now defunct mini-disc format which I used right up until I got my first mp3 player in '03 or '04). I have since purchased the CD and every listen reminds me how damned worth it every penny was :D (ok, it only cost me £5, that's mega-extreme value for this album).
100 Broken Windows opens with a strong riff-based number called Little Discourage, a song which also made it as the albums first single release. This song really exemplifies the bands style at the time, opening with a catchy main riff at a nice easy pace which then builds up pace by switching to a chord progression in the pre-chorus and hitting that energetic grungy pop-punk with a sing-along chorus that brings the listener the sort of elation that a good chorus is supposed to bring, the sort of chorus you can be listening to in public with the headphones on and be severely tempted just to scream out "All I Need Is A Little DISCOURAGE!" along with the song.
Having your first single, the reason many people will have bought the album in the first place as your opening track is a bold move, but one that Idlewild can afford to take as the rest of the album is just as strong. I'd love to take each track in turn and explain why I love it, but alas I fear that would somewhat damage the blogs readability, instead from this point I suggest you check out the songs themselves via the Spotify playlist link. My personal favourites from the album include These Wooden Ideas, Roseability (this one fucking rules actually), Idea Track, Actually It's Darkness and Quiet Crown. I feel these deserve special mention, but I honestly believe this is one of those rare albums that is devoid of a bad track (ok, I didn't like Rusty or The Bronze Medal that much initially, but they grow on ya :p)
In 2002 the band released The Remote Part to decent commercial success in the UK. The album marked a change in direction for the band, in addition to their rock aspect the band added an acoustic approach with general leanings towards folk and an all round gentler approach to vocals by the bands singer Roddy Woomble. Despite the introduction of the softer elements the album still sounds distinctly Idlewild and it all sits together as one impressively cohesive unit.
The album once again opens with the first single released from the album You Held the World In Your Arms. Right from the opener you can hear the difference between this Idlewild and Idlewild previous, there's definitely a maturity here, the song writing has grown, the guitar is providing more melody than before and there's the addition of symphonic elements in the main theme of the song. The grunge aspect is still there, but now it feels like the more refined grunge of Pearl Jam rather than the rawness of Nirvana.
The album is full of pace changes, but they transitions feel smooth and welcome rather than awkward and jarring, the first two tracks of the album power through at breakneck speed to be tempered by the ballad American English which begins softly and gently and builds to a crescendo at the chorus, it's a well worn tried and tested approach, and this track proves better than most that it works.
The first song that starts to show leanings of the new acoustic leanings of the band is Live In A Hiding Place which opens with a simple picked acoustic progression and is later joined by the whole ensemble avec electric guitars. This truly is one of the albums stand out tracks and demonstrates the bands willingness to experiment with new things, such as acoustic and piano.
The last track I want to go into more detail with here is the albums final (and title) track In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction. I want to, but I won't. I think this is a track you have to hear in order to get the full effect. All I'll say is make sure you've got your volume up good n loud. Gives me the chills.
Unlike 100 Broken Windows I can't give you a handful of personal favourites, this album is a personal favourite. Buy it. Buy it now.
And for me that's where Idlewild ended for a while. I have regularly listened to these two albums ever since, but I didn't keep up with the bands career following In Remote Part. I remember seeing them do a free public performance in Fopp in Glasgow (centre not West End) in support of their next album (Warnings/Promises in 2005) which struck me as the worst possible shop to do a performance in one could conceive of. The shop has middle floor that is little more than an extended landing that looks over the ground floor, the crowd stood on the ground floor and the band played on the middle floor. Unfortunately due to the design of the ceiling you couldn't see anyone standing up in the middle floor from the ground floor except from certain vantage points, so Roddy (being the only one without a seat) spent most of the show on his knees so we could see him. I didn't buy the album, even though I enjoyed their performance, and I didn't really think much about it again until 2008. I think the reason for staying away was largely due to a change in my general taste in music at the time, I was more in to harder rock and metal and the idea of listening to stuff that leaned more on the soft side wasn't too attractive at the time.
I don't know why, time, changing tastes, curiosity, whatever, I decided to hook back into 
Idlewild, so I got my hands on Warnings/Promises, its follow up Make Another World and the two releases they'd made before I got into the the first time, Captain and Hope Is Important. All these I'm less familiar with, I'm really crap with song names and it literally takes years before I can look at a list of songs by a band and know what they sound like from their titles alone.
Warnings/Promises is a much slower paced affair, none of the tracks build up much past a mid pace. The bands folk influences are clearly apparent throughout the album, even touching upon an almost country like feel with jangly lightly overdriven guitars fairly prevalent throughout. The album on the whole feels very "Scottish", most of the songs here wouldn't sound out of place at a Scottish modern folk festival. Fans of their earlier sound may not be particularly keen on this record, although those who include the softer genres of rock/pop music among their favourites will probably appreciate this.
I'm not incredibly familiar with the track names on the album but I managed to comb through it and whack some personal highlights onto the Spotify playlist, if you check out one song from this album make it El Capitan, there's something about the driving pop beat of this song that makes it divine.
Make Another World, released in 2007 made a return to the faster pace of earlier Idlewild, but balanced nicely against their later approach. The 
grungy tone largely absent from Warnings/Promises is instantly apparent in the opener to Make Another World, In Competition For The Worst Time. Unfortunately Spotify is almost entirely devoid of tracks from Make Another World and only one of the albums more prominent singles No Emotion is available, although I got a couple more on the flash playlist (including In Competition For The Worst Time, so check em out.
Make Another World continues as it begins with a further couple of tracks reminiscent of the bands earlier sound, albeit with a nice dose of modern Idlewild to give the tracks a fresher sound. The net pace of this album is definitely up beat, most of the songs are pretty driven at least in parts and the album generally strikes a good balance between the grungy tones of their youth and the more tempered tones of their maturity. Unfortunately I'm not able to provide you with many examples from this album, but check out No emotion and In Competition For The Worst Time from the playlists for a brief taster. If you're hungry for more stand out tracks for me on the album aside from those two include most of the album :p seriously, this is a supreme return to form for a band that has experimented with different directions and has really hit the right formula on this one. I saw the album going for £3 in Fopp recently, which is practically criminal.
Actually just listening to the last song Finished It Remains there and wish I could share it, it's an awesome closing song, closing moments are something the band does extremely well. I think too many bands finish albums in a rather lack lustre manner and Idlewild always seem to make the last track really count. Give you something to inspire you to come back to the album again and again knowing that it's one hell of a journey and the end is just as satisfying as the beginning.
That's about it from me on Idlewild peeps. You might notice that I haven't said much about their early days, and that's cus I don't have much to say on their early days, however I did throw on one of their early songs at the end of the playlists.
Hope you've enjoyed reading as much as I've enjoyed writing. freedoms_stain, out.
ame round to have a go on the brand new PS2 I'd got for Christmas, bringing with him two CDs he'd nicked from his brothers collection, one the self titled début of American soft rockers Third Eye Blind, the other an album entitled 100 Broken Windows by a band called Idlewild. The music was an interesting mix of mid-paced soft rock and energetic grungy pop-punk, the cumulative effect nothing short of outstanding. I needed little persuasion to copy the album on the spot (using the now defunct mini-disc format which I used right up until I got my first mp3 player in '03 or '04). I have since purchased the CD and every listen reminds me how damned worth it every penny was :D (ok, it only cost me £5, that's mega-extreme value for this album).
100 Broken Windows opens with a strong riff-based number called Little Discourage, a song which also made it as the albums first single release. This song really exemplifies the bands style at the time, opening with a catchy main riff at a nice easy pace which then builds up pace by switching to a chord progression in the pre-chorus and hitting that energetic grungy pop-punk with a sing-along chorus that brings the listener the sort of elation that a good chorus is supposed to bring, the sort of chorus you can be listening to in public with the headphones on and be severely tempted just to scream out "All I Need Is A Little DISCOURAGE!" along with the song.
Having your first single, the reason many people will have bought the album in the first place as your opening track is a bold move, but one that Idlewild can afford to take as the rest of the album is just as strong. I'd love to take each track in turn and explain why I love it, but alas I fear that would somewhat damage the blogs readability, instead from this point I suggest you check out the songs themselves via the Spotify playlist link. My personal favourites from the album include These Wooden Ideas, Roseability (this one fucking rules actually), Idea Track, Actually It's Darkness and Quiet Crown. I feel these deserve special mention, but I honestly believe this is one of those rare albums that is devoid of a bad track (ok, I didn't like Rusty or The Bronze Medal that much initially, but they grow on ya :p)
In 2002 the band released The Remote Part to decent commercial success in the UK. The album marked a change in direction for the band, in addition to their rock aspect the band added an acoustic approach with general leanings towards folk and an all round gentler approach to vocals by the bands singer Roddy Woomble. Despite the introduction of the softer elements the album still sounds distinctly Idlewild and it all sits together as one impressively cohesive unit.
Idlewild, so I got my hands on Warnings/Promises, its follow up Make Another World and the two releases they'd made before I got into the the first time, Captain and Hope Is Important. All these I'm less familiar with, I'm really crap with song names and it literally takes years before I can look at a list of songs by a band and know what they sound like from their titles alone.
Warnings/Promises is a much slower paced affair, none of the tracks build up much past a mid pace. The bands folk influences are clearly apparent throughout the album, even touching upon an almost country like feel with jangly lightly overdriven guitars fairly prevalent throughout. The album on the whole feels very "Scottish", most of the songs here wouldn't sound out of place at a Scottish modern folk festival. Fans of their earlier sound may not be particularly keen on this record, although those who include the softer genres of rock/pop music among their favourites will probably appreciate this.
I'm not incredibly familiar with the track names on the album but I managed to comb through it and whack some personal highlights onto the Spotify playlist, if you check out one song from this album make it El Capitan, there's something about the driving pop beat of this song that makes it divine.
Make Another World, released in 2007 made a return to the faster pace of earlier Idlewild, but balanced nicely against their later approach. The grungy tone largely absent from Warnings/Promises is instantly apparent in the opener to Make Another World, In Competition For The Worst Time. Unfortunately Spotify is almost entirely devoid of tracks from Make Another World and only one of the albums more prominent singles No Emotion is available, although I got a couple more on the flash playlist (including In Competition For The Worst Time, so check em out.
Make Another World continues as it begins with a further couple of tracks reminiscent of the bands earlier sound, albeit with a nice dose of modern Idlewild to give the tracks a fresher sound. The net pace of this album is definitely up beat, most of the songs are pretty driven at least in parts and the album generally strikes a good balance between the grungy tones of their youth and the more tempered tones of their maturity. Unfortunately I'm not able to provide you with many examples from this album, but check out No emotion and In Competition For The Worst Time from the playlists for a brief taster. If you're hungry for more stand out tracks for me on the album aside from those two include most of the album :p seriously, this is a supreme return to form for a band that has experimented with different directions and has really hit the right formula on this one. I saw the album going for £3 in Fopp recently, which is practically criminal.
Actually just listening to the last song Finished It Remains there and wish I could share it, it's an awesome closing song, closing moments are something the band does extremely well. I think too many bands finish albums in a rather lack lustre manner and Idlewild always seem to make the last track really count. Give you something to inspire you to come back to the album again and again knowing that it's one hell of a journey and the end is just as satisfying as the beginning.
That's about it from me on Idlewild peeps. You might notice that I haven't said much about their early days, and that's cus I don't have much to say on their early days, however I did throw on one of their early songs at the end of the playlists.
Hope you've enjoyed reading as much as I've enjoyed writing. freedoms_stain, out.
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