Idles - Ultra Mono

The Guardian 80

(Partisan)
The Bristol punks return with more precision-tooled muscularity and a hint that they won’t be hidebound by genre

The ascent of Bristol punks Idles from thrilling cult live proposition to unlikely Top 5 album stars in 2018 was remarkable. It was even more so when you consider that their sound owes far less to the melodic pop smarts of regular chart-botherers Green Day and Blink-182 and more to the blunt-force trauma of the avowedly uncommercial Shellac and Fucked Up.

Related: Idles: 'Vulnerability is the armour'

Pitchfork 55

The Bristol punk band’s third album goes for fist-in-the-air righteousness but stumbles over itself at nearly every turn, resulting in a broad and unfocused attempt to speak to the moment.