Published on Jul 26, 2001
Rock and roll ain’t dead yet, folks. There still is some life to
this music, and there is no better proof of this than listening to
100 Broken Windows, the latest release by the Scottish rock
band Idlewild.
What makes
100 Broken Windows such a great listen is they follow a
recipe that many great rock and roll albums use. They take the
influences of their favorite artists, and add their own perspective
to it, making their music sound fresh, yet familiar.
The two artists Idlewild seems to be heavily influenced by are
R.E.M. and Nirvana – not bad choices at all. Just listen to the
opening track of this CD called “Little Discourage”. At first, I
thought I put on an old R.E.M. CD by mistake. The melody of this
song and the cryptic lyrics make this sound like it came straight
out of R.E.M.’s
Murmur or
Reckoning albums.
However, listening to “Little Discourage”, I find some distinct
differences. The jangly guitar sound of those R.E.M. songs are
nowhere to be found, replaced by Rod Jones’ more aggressive punky
guitar lines. Also, singer Michael Woomble’s voice is much more
forceful and clearer. Woomble definitely wants you to hear the
poetic lyrics.
On the second song, “I Don’t Have The Map”, the R.E.M. style
melody is still intact, but the Nirvana influences begin to appear
as the song builds with Woombly sounding like he is channeling Kurt
Cobain as he shouts out the lyrics. “These Wooden Ideas” and
“Roseability” continue in the same manner, adding some capable
backup vocals to the mix.
100 Broken Windows makes a left turn at this point with
“Idea Track” where the R.E.M. influence disappears, and the grunge
quotient goes up with Woomble in full scream mode, and the guitar
more up front in the mix. However, this is softened by the addition
of backup vocals, and what sounds like a violin at the end of the
song.
“Let Me Sleep (Next To The Mirror)” would be my choice for the
single because this is the most “poppy” song on the CD, sounding
not unlike the Vertical Horizon hit, “Everything She Wants”. The
difference is the beautiful imagery here: I interpret this as a
song about a woman metaphorically not wanting to see her reflection
in the mirror, because of what she might find out about herself.
Then again, this might not be Top 40 fodder after all.
(Apparently “Little Discourage” and “Roseability” are the
singles since this CD also contains the videos for these two songs,
which you can play on your computer’s CD-ROM or DVD player. The
videos are in Quicktime format, and a copy of Quicktime for Windows
and Macintosh are included in case you need them.)
Now back to the music: “Actually It’s Darkness” blends a very
Nirvana-like chorus to a murky Cure-like verse, and somehow makes
such an unlikely combination actually work. No one is credited with
playing the piano on the CD, but it sure seems to be there on this
and other tracks.
100 Broken Windows turns quiet towards the end. “Quiet
Crown” has the band toning things down instrumentally (except for
Colin Newton’s expressive drumming), and has a stately quality to
it. This and the final song, the ballad “The Bronze Medal”, show
that Woombly can sing with power even in an understated mode.
What I really like about
100 Broken Windows is that it is an easy listen if you only
want to rock out, but it makes you work a little if you are
interested in discovering what these songs are about. I
congratulate Idlewild on bringing poetry back to rock and roll.