With a worryingly Feeder-esque intro, Roddy and the boys announce their return to the singles market with something of a reinvention.
A little more pomp and a lot more melancholy is the order of the day, served up with some nice MOR production. ‘Love Steals Us From Loneliness’ even comes complete with its very own power-ballad chorus. In fact, the more I listen to this the closer I get to a Bryan Adams concert.
Certainly further away from the Idlewild of old: slightly shambolic, a little more ragged but always full of energy. Nowadays they sound fed-up with sweaty club venues, and glare angrily when they hear 'Summer Of 69' on the radio. That could be them, y’know. From Wembley to Hampden Park, they’ve clearly got some grand designs.
Get real, boys. Your forte was never pedestrian balladry, nor was it treading water in front of 80,000 hamming up the hits. It was a little spontaneity, a more ramshackle arrangement and basically everything this song lacks.
"Don't tell me you’re afraid of the past" croons Woomble and on this evidence Idlewild fans shouldn't be: the past is much better. Just goes to show that sounding like REM isn’t necessarily a good thing these days, especially for bands who’ve built up a fanbase by doing something altogether more visceral.
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4Rob Webb's Score