The New Sensation is a subversive dance number highlighting the vigorous response music can provoke (“Shake it to the snare and get down to the kick / Shake your tiny tooshie like you don’t give a shit”) despite never mentioning him directly, it’s self-described as a reaction to Rishi Sunak. “And so it turns, again and again … ” the song repeats.ĭespite the personal narrative at the heart of Crawler, it still integrates the political tirades that have defined Idles. So, aptly, second track The Wheel – a return to the swaggering punk at Idles’ core – flashes back to the cycle that began his addictions: the journey from begging his mum to quit substances to using them himself just two years later. The crash had existential repercussions for Talbot, who questioned the trajectory of his life. “It’s important that I make sure people realise the unglamorous, violent nature of the cycle of alcoholism or drug abuse.” “A car crash is a violent image and we’ve always used violence – whether it’s the violence of joy, the violence of love or the violence of grief – as a part of our vocabulary as musicians,” he explains. “I can see my spinal cord rip high,” Talbot sings darkly over the creeping synths of opener MTT 420 RR. “It should have been a turning point,” he says, “but it wasn’t.” It’s that collision that commences Crawler’s narrative. The nadir of Talbot’s substance abuse was when he crashed a car while high. Idles perform at Eden Sessions, September 2021. (He refuses to say which substances, because “I want to be able to get on planes.”) Four years later she had a stroke after his stepfather died, Talbot became his mother’s carer until she too died while Idles were making Brutalism. He started using substances at the age of 12, after her non-fatal heart attack. He remembers, at the age of 10, crying on his knees, imploring his mother to stop drinking. Talbot was born in 1984: the son of an artist father and a mother who worked for the Inland Revenue. Specifically, Crawler tells of the singer’s 15-year struggle with substance abuse. “I illustrate ideas and set them out in front of an audience this album has more of a narrative.” “Normally, I’m more of a painter,” Talbot says. Where previous albums were, lyrically, “broad strokes” discussions of socio-political strife, Crawler is their first foray into true storytelling. If all seems peachy in Idles’ world, pain preceded their ascendancy – and their new album illuminates that starkly. We were embraced by a loving community who’ve built us up to the point where we can get No 1 in a lockdown. “It didn’t show that we were a great band it showed we’ve got a great audience. “That was a quiet week,” Talbot quips over Zoom rare levity from an otherwise intense speaker.