IDLEWILD Warnings/Promises Parlophone Scots indie troubadours grow old gracefully.
From page 87 of Classic Rock Magazine April 2005
It’s difficult to get excited by Idlewild these days. When they started out in the late 90s their gigs were famously anarchic affairs, the feedback-drenched chaos of their music matched only by the drunken antics of frontman Roddy Woomble. They’ve since stopped wanting to be Sonic Youth, and now want to be R.E.M. instead.
Fortunately they have a talent for writing emotive, intelligent ballads; Too Long Awake in particular is a work of keening melancholy. And while the self- consciously ‘profound’ lyrics occasionally shade into pomposity, Warnings/Promises is a soulful, subtle album that anyone who enjoyed the evolved indie of Snow Patrol’s last album would do well
to explore.
■■■■■■■ ■■■ Karl Stephens


