Ultra Mono by IDLES

If ever there was a year for loud, positive-change-oriented punk rock, 2020 was it. IDLES, the five-piece band of rockers from Bristol, are very much in the right place and the right time. The first time IDLES appeared on the Top 31 was for their 2018 album Fear as an Act of Resistance (#16 that year), and I was a reluctant convert. It took me a bit to warm up to the band that year.

Sure, there was plenty to be angry about in 2018, but nothing like the insanity of 2020. Ultra Mono, the band’s third album, instantly grabbed me. When the heavy bass and drums kick in on the opening song “War,” you’re jolted out of your seat and immediately flooded with adrenaline. 43 minutes later you emerge exhausted and drenched in sweat, having experienced every emotion in the most cathartic therapy session ever.

Lead singer Joe Talbot’s lyrics circle around easy breezy topics such as the modern sociopolitical climate, class struggle, mental health and toxic masculinity. He barks at you in the angry, violent tone typically reserved for army sergeants at boot camp. And the two guitars, bass and drums carry his voice along a war-torn, muddy path running along no-man’s zone. It’s not quiet, at all, ever.

But it’s perfect for 2020.

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1. Saint Cloud by Waxahatchee
2. Fetch The Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple
3. Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers
4. folklore + evermore by Taylor Swift
5. Untitled (Black Is) + Untitled (Rise) by Sault
6. RTJ4 by Run The Jewels
7. Shore by Fleet Foxes
8. Serpentine Prison by Matt Berninger
9. The Ascension by Sufjan Stevens
10. Making a Door Less Open by Car Seat Headrest
11. Dreamland by Glass Animals
12. A Hero’s Death by Fontaines D.C.
13. Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez by Gorillaz
14. Mordechai + Texas Sun EP by Khruangbin
15. Introduction, Presence by Nation of Language
16. Free Love by Sylvan Esso
17. Miss Anthropocene by Grimes
18. 3.15.20 by Childish Gambino
19. Women In Music Pt. III by HAIM
20. The Third Mind by The Third Mind
21. Superstar by Caroline Rose
22. Impossible Weight by Deep Sea Diver
23. We Will Always Love You by The Avalanches
24. Ultra Mono by IDLES
25. Visions of Bodies Being Burned by clipping.
26. Thin Mind by Wolf Parade
27. The Loves of Your Life by Hamilton Leithauser
28. Palo Alto (Live) by Thelonious Monk
29. color theory by Soccer Mommy
30. Fall to Pieces by Tricky
31. Quarantine Casanova by Chromeo

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