It feels like yesterday that the British punk-tinted rock band IDLES released their beautifully intimidating masterpiece, their fourth album CRAWLER. That same album that redefined the band artistically also led to widespread commercial and critical success, including two Grammy nominations in the Best Rock Album and Best Rock Performance categories. On the heels of the band stepping into an even brighter spotlight, they crash-landed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon for a menacing performance of the CRAWLER track “The Wheel”.
Their appearance on the popular late-night show seemed like an exclamation point for the band, putting an end to what was a widely successful 2022. During the performance, lead singer Joe Talbot’s face was never fully illuminated which only added to the sear his gruff voice leaves on your ear. “The Wheel” features some of IDLES’ best arrangement work with its slick guitar sections and groove-filled pockets from the drummer; this song somehow sounds even better live. Check out the full performance here
Along with their fourth album catapulting them to trophies and acclaim in 2021, last year also saw IDLES celebrating the five year anniversary of their 2017 debut album, Brutalism. In honor of the album that started it all, the band released a deluxe version which included a live version of the album from the band’s performance at BBC’s Introducing at Glastonbury.
The band didn’t spend too much time away from CRAWLER though as they also released a short documentary on the making of their Grammy-nominated album just before 2022 wrapped up. You can watch the 11-minute documentary below:
Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AneIifyXrAI
