Idlewild - Warnings/Promises

Genre rock Publisher Capitol Records External Links Official Website Capitol Records

The skronky, skuzzy guitar part found at the mid-point of "I Want a Warning" on Idlewild's latest album Warnings/Promises, underlines just how far adrift this once Earth-shattering band has gone. Starting with 2002's The Remote Part and continuing here, this is a band that has embraced the use of melody to a fault and fast-forwarded themselves into AAA-radio territory, to attempt the sort of comfort the likes of Maroon 5 and latter day REM inhabit.

In fact, REM is the band most often name checked when critics discuss Idlewild (see? I'm even doing it here!), but rarely is the comparison qualified. Is it the early, jangly REM? No. The politically fired up REM? No again. The Shiny Happy REM? No way could Idlewild go that far. Or is it the REM of now, the shell of a formerly great band who bog their songs down with syrupy refrains and stale musicianship? Is it that one?

Yes, it is the last one. Granted, I'll take Idlewild's Warnings/Promises over REM's Around the Sun any day of the year, but that doesn't mean I don't miss the fierceness, nay! The ferocity displayed on the band's second release, 100 Broken Windows. The abundant pleasures of that album are largely lost here as the band seeks MOR immortality.

There are the rare moments when the band, especially lead singer Roddy Woomble, pulls themselves out of their doldrums. The aforementioned "I Want a Warning," as well as "The Space between All Things," the chorus of which brings to mind similar strong passages from 100 Broken Windows. But far too often, such as on the lead track, "Love Steals Us from Loneliness," the band veers into emo country and even actual country music on "Disconnected," where steel guitar is laid underneath Woomble's noblest attempts at reaching Stipe-"Nightswimming"-heights.

It's not that Woomble and company don't mean what they say or feel what they're playing; it's that the band isn't suited for the sort of material they aspire to. By now, after the wildly erring The Remote Part, they should have found their footing and be on the road to making this stuff come forth gracefully. But they're not and the music reflects it.