IDLEWILD – POST ELECTRIC BLUES
Scottish rockers Idlewild have put out six albums now in 14 years, and are going through bass-players at a rate of one per album – give or take a bass-player. Album number six, Post Electric Blues doesn’t add anything new to the canon of rock music, but it has its moments. City Hall and Younger Than America are classic examples of what a good stadium rock band is capable of on a good day – catchy riffarama and sing-a-long choruses that do not have to insult your intelligence even they don’t actively add to it. If you have a strong melody and nothing to say, I’ll accept a few “la, la…la, la, la’s” any day. (The Night Will) Bring You Back To Life is a more interesting excursion into their Celtic folk origins a la Newfoundland’s Great Big Sea, and Take Me Back to the Islands has similar appeal, although each down tempo moment is obligingly (and predictably) followed but another riffamatic stadium outing – and yet you can’t deny their foot-stomping quality. And so it goes; with Idlewind you know what you are going to get and if that helps make you feel better then Post Electric Blues will keep you well satisfied.
***1/2
