Today, IDLES release their much-anticipated third album “Ultra Mono” via Partisan Records. To mark the release, the band have also shared a new video for their frenetic album opener – “War”
The band’s new video for “War” follows the release of other ‘Ultra Mono’ highlights “Mr. Motivator”, “Grounds”, “Hymns” and “Model Village”, the latter accompanied by an animated music video directed by Michel Gondry (Daft Punk, Radiohead, The White Stripes) and Olivier Gondry, created in collaboration with WePresent, WeTransfer’s editorial platform.
The album release also follows on the heels of IDLES recent announcement sharing details of the support acts for their UK and Irish tour dates in May and June 2021, which will see them play Brixton Academy on four consecutive dates.
The tour will see the band joined by the likes Jehnny Beth, Anna Calvi, Cate le Bon, Sinead O Brien, Big Joanie, Witch Fever, Shopping and wych elm.
Dates are as follows:
Tickets are on sale now and you can purchase the new album from the band’s official store at: idlesband.com
Fans can also sign up to their mailing list for further news at: IDLES.LNK.TO/NEWS
In addition to the above live dates, IDLES have also recently announced a new run of intimate out-store shows to take place in record stores across the country in April 2021. The dates are as follows:
Tickets are available at: IDLES.LNK.TO/2021-OUTSTORES
Recorded in Paris and produced by Nick Launay (Nick Cave, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arcade Fire) and Adam ‘Atom’ Greenspan (Anna Calvi, Cut Copy), with Kenny Beats (FKA Twigs, DaBaby, Vince Staples) providing additional programming, “Ultra Mono” was sonically constructed to capture the feeling of a hip-hop record. Across all twelve brutally relevant tracks, the band double down on the vitriolic sneer and blunt social commentary of their past work, with themes of active presence, inclusivity, class, gender inequality, nationalism, community, and toxic masculinity remaining ever-present. ‘Ultra Mono’ also features guest vocals from Jehnny Beth (Savages), and additional guest contributions from Warren Ellis (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), David Yow, and Jamie Cullum.
If their last record – 2018’s “Joy As An Act Of Resistance” – was meant to detail IDLES’ manifesto, then “Ultra Mono” is the sound of the band heading into battle, battering ram in hand, for those tenets. The phrase “momentary acceptance of the self” serves as spiritual guide and mantra throughout, as Talbot elaborates on further in an essay printed inside the album’s physical packaging (read that HERE).
Credit: Tom Ham
