Making guitar pop is easy. Making good, complex guitar pop that evolves over the course of five albums... now that's a challenge.
And "Make Another World" shows that Scottish rockers Idlewild are still up to that challenge, wound with tight melodies and spiked with steel-edged riffs. It's a nice mingling of their prior albums' styles, with most of the strong points and few of the flaws.
It opens with a ringing, cycling electric riff, joined in by some rapid-fire drums and more riffs and basslines. Roddy Woomble sings rather sadly through the fast-paced rocker: "I know my name but I can't deny/I talk in silence like I'm used to/Graduation fits the worst time I could use/Confidence for the first time!"
The album zooms through a series of uptempo guitar-based rockers -- tightly-wound electric-guitar pop, rapid skittering rockers, and smashing hard-rock that just creeps over the line of catchiness. But they have a few slower songs as well -- ballads played with electric guitar, some slow-burning rockers that build up on a bed of roiling riffs, and more.
"Make Another World" seems to be striking a balance between their last two albums, one of which was hard-driving rock, and one which was mellow and melodic. So Idlewild gets the best of both worlds, creating rapid rock tunes and sprinkling them with melodic moments and some midtempo pop. If there's anything to complain about, it's that "If I Take You Home" seems too simplistic for the rest of the album.
But most of the time, their instrumentation is astoundingly good -- lots of ringing riffs and steely basslines, which are melded together into flexible, muscular melodies. Even when they play softer pop tunes like the title track, the instrumentation is smooth and strong. And they throw in a few scraping chords here and there, smashing drums and a little ripple of keyboard organ here and there.
And Woomble's slightly rough voice fits the music quite well, especially since his vocals can rise above the loudest rocker. And the songs he sings are nicely polished as well, poignant and a bit poetic: "And I curse the sun/As the moon outdarkens the sky/Your heart is beating in your palm... And if my brothers, and my sisters
Are in the air where the moonlight twists/I'll board this ship/But only a ship that sails to no destination..."
Idlewild stick to their strengths in "Make Another World," fusing their solid hard-rock with the more melodic edge of their previous album. Definitely a worthy album for this Scotrock band, and definitely worth hearing more of.
To realize there is injustice, heartbreak, ignorance and just plain foolishness in this world one need look no further than the music reviews here at Amazon. Just the numbers alone give it away. I am reviewer #2 for this wonderful album by an immensely talented, consistently excellent yet practically invisible band! Nevertheless, if you would dare to explore these notions further do yourself a favor and invest in the Idlewild catalog of albums - at least beginning with 100 Broken Windows. Roddy Woomble can turn a phrase like the best of them with edgy guitars and driving drum beats forming a pitch-perfect backdrop. These fellas always come through with a great batch of songs that are somehow both sweet and noisy at the same time but in just the right measure. This is what gives them their unique charm and ultimately, staying power. Sign yourself up as a fan - these guys are authentic rock stars!
