MUSIC REVIEW: Idlewild – Interview Music

Idlewild released their new record last week on the 5th of April, “Interview Music” is their 8th studio album. Starting out in 1995, Idlewild made waves on the Edinburgh indie rock scene as their sound was edgy and angular, carrying a faster and more dissonant beat than their 1990s contemporaries. However, over the past eight albums, this sound has evolved into a sweeping mellow rock. Rocking from one end of the spectrum to the other has meant that the band has always been teetering on the outside of genre categories. Interview Music comes as a follow-up to Everything Ever Written (2014), both albums have a softer, romantic tone to them, making the transition from one album to the next smooth.

Interview Music is an interesting record geographically as the production was constructed between the Outer Hebrides and Los Angeles. A lot of songs are influenced by the ideas and thoughts that come out of dreaming and dream-like states. Frontman Roddy Woomble describes this influence of dreaming on geographical location by exclaims: “I live in the Scottish Highlands, and between there and California you’ve got two locations that can put you in a dream-like state – driving down Sunset Boulevard as the sun sets or driving over the remote Ardnamurchan peninsula as the sun rises. The world seems unreal, magical. You’re dreaming through a landscape”.

The notion of dreams is perpetrated by their start, Woomble believes that one of the most important aspects of Idlewild is how humble they are, referring to themselves still as dreaming “punk rock kids”. The band members learned to play their instruments as they learned to play within the band. Although Woomble isn’t the same kid rolling around the stage with a microphone, the band are still sticking to their core concept of getting on stage, making a noise, and expressing ideas.

The influence of dreaming on their core concept flies right off the bat with ‘Dream Variations’. The opener kicks up with a rumbling baseline where the piano and guitar build around Woomble’s rich voice, creating the distinctive Idlewild sound that we know. Running with the delicate dream feeling, ‘There’s A Place for Everything’ features the embellishments of delayed guitar notes that are complemented by the flourish of synth notes, giving the song a full-bodied feeling that showcases the maturity of the band. This maturity is heightened with the beautiful melody in ‘I Almost Didn’t Notice’, where the warm tones come in stark contrast to the much cooler, classic rock n roll style of ‘Miracles’. Standing out from the rest, title track, ‘Interview Music’, is an anomaly in structure. You have five pieces that shouldn’t work together, but somehow Idlewild manage to make it work seamlessly, anything is possible in a dream? The entire song is a climax that reaches a crux of guitars, piano, and vocals that swirl together in a whirlwind of noise.

While the ever-evolving style is signature to Idlewild, this album paves the way for the future. While the past seven albums have crafted their own spaces, “Interview Music” shows the band discovering a new groove. Their wild punk rock days do not lie in the dark, instead, they create a drive that is propelling Idlewild into a bright future.