IDLEWILD - Idlewild - LP - Indie Exclusive Cool Blue Vinyl [OCT 3]

LP - Indie Exclusive Cool Blue Vinyl

Immediately, there is the sense of a band in motion -their storied past not an anchor but a spur. Idlewild’s songs offer a string of compelling answers: “Everything adds up to the present moment, doesn’t it?” Woomble asks.

Idlewild have been many things. They were a teenage punk band, slinging buzzsaw riffs and barbed refrains, before becoming one of the most compelling mainstream rock groups of their generation. With 2019’s Interview Music, they made sprawling art pop. On Idlewild, they welcome each of these past selves into the room.

Work on a follow up to Interview Music was originally planned to begin immediately after the band wrapped up touring, but the pandemic brought things to a halt. Touring the 20th anniversary of The Remote Part in 2022 was a visceral reminder of where they had been - and a prompt for what might come next.

They assembled songs that celebrate pop hooks and livewire distortion, as well as expressive interplay. Writing continued at Post Electric Studio in Edinburgh and the Isle of Iona Library, before a short, sharp burst of recording in early 2025.

The result is a lean, focused document - 10 tracks that get in and out in 30 minutes and change. With Jones engineering and mixing, the production reflects a collaborative, in-house approach.“We were referencing ourselves... realising that we had a ‘sound’,” Woomble says.

Facing forward, not back, Idlewild captures beauty, nuance, and clarity from three decades of sound and feeling - spontaneous, purposeful, and unmistakably them.

Tracklist: 

Stay Out Of Place
Like I Had Before
It's Not The First Time
(I Can't Help) Back Then You Found Me
The Mirror Still
Make It Happen
I Wish I Wrote It Down
Permanent Colours
Writers Of The Present Time
End With Sunrise