@ ABC, Glasgow, on Sat 7 Mar 2015
It’s a fine time to be a nineties guitar band. The Charlatans have gained near universal praise for their mid-career renaissance. Blur have (Magic) Whipped up a storm of excitement for their new album. Even Mogwai have become unlikely indie musical treasures, receiving an adulatory 20 year retrospective documentary on BBC 6Music.
Of a slightly later vintage and lower public profile, Idlewild have, in their own quiet way, re-emerged from hibernation to find a.) the creative juices still flow freely, and b.) people are still interested. PledgeMusic-funded new album, Everything Ever Written, is as complete a work as anything they’ve ever done, their biggest hit for a decade and must be an early contender for Best Art Vinyl 2015.
Here, on the first of a two night residency at the ABC, they are in their element, sharing musical stories in the company of long-term friends. They are a beard-heavy band these days, only singer Roddy Woomble on nodding terms with a Gillette ProGlide, although there’s no evidence of chinfluff-led forays into the land of hard rock or hipster-folk in the music, which remains stolidly guitar indie.
There’s no surprise in how old favourites are received – an incendiary Roseability, a triumphant Love Steals Us From Loneliness, a belligerent medley of A Film For The Future and Captain all meet outstretched arms and an echoing chorus of voices. The new material more than holds its own though, adding variety at no expense to quality, a sign of a band still operating at peak performance. Collect Yourself reveals a hitherto unsuspected funky side, while Come On Ghost‘s R.E.M.-ic quality emerges vividly in a live setting, the reedy backing harmonies that are buried in the mix on the recorded version coming to the fore. More new material would, for once, have been welcome.
Idlewild are always going to receive a warmer response in Scotland than is strictly merited by performance alone. Neutral parties may struggle to understand why the band engender such devotion for music which never departs well-worn indie guitar paths for long. But theirs is a subtle appeal, there in the folk inflections of Woomble and in the band’s art school and literary leanings. The combination is best encapsulated in the song with which they end their encore – In Remote Part / Scottish Fiction, complete with its spoken word sample of the late poet Edwin Morgan (which tonight regrettably fails to carry through the PA). Idlewild have found their own tiny corner table in our musical world and have come back tonight to find their friends have pulled a chair over and are sat there, with a pint waiting.