Idlewild - Love Steals Us From Loneliness (Parlophone)
UK release date: 21 February 2005
Recently voted Scotland's third best band of all time, Idlewild are
riding into the release of their fourth album, Warnings/Promises on a wave
of deserved critical appreciation. Love Steals... is the opening track from
said album and does much to whet appetites for what is widely tipped to be
the five-piece's best ever long-player.
Showing little departure from the formula that made The Remote Part such
a cracking album, Love Steals... has deep layers of guitar and bass overlaid
by Roddy Woomble's familiar and distinctive voice. The lyrics are typical of
Woomble's introspective, forlorn style - "My anger is a form of madness / And
so I'd rather have hope than sadness" - and the chorus is a real singalong
masterpiece too.
There is more consolidation than progression here, but if the rest of the
album can live up to this single, then we're in for a real treat.