Ultra Mono
| Idles
Ultra Mono
Ultra Mono is the third studio album by English band Idles, released on 25 September 2020 by Partisan Records. Following on from their previous album Joy as an Act of Resistance, the album further explores themes established in the band's previous works such as the modern sociopolitical climate, class struggle, mental health and toxic masculinity, as well as the positive and negative aspects of the band's newfound fame. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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NME
The Bristol punks’ third album is a juggernaut that roars through sarcasm, defiance, compassion and controversy. It's a bumpy ride, but one worth taking.
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Louder Sound
Forged during lockdown, Idles' Ultra Mono feels entirely appropriate for these times.
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Pitchfork
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.
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The Line of Best Fit
Ultra Mono is an enjoyable but ideologically confused record and one in which some of IDLES best material must compensate for some of their worst.
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DIY Magazine
It’s an excellent message to stand for, but a big mantle to carry.
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GoldenPlec
IDLES’ acclaim to this point is well-deserved. Their music is exhilarating, and for all its literary and pop-culture references and limited lyricism, remains engaging. There is a lot to enjoy here but it’s not going to convert the uninitiated. As energetic as ever, ‘Ultra Mono’ quite simply lacks that bright spark that made their previous full-lengths special.
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Treblezine
There’s a buildup to high-intensity moments, and a cool-down toward the end, but mostly a well-rounded, cathartic chance to sweat our collective demons out. Even if the community the band has worked tirelessly to promote can’t bond together in person, there’s still a strong sense of togetherness that can be felt just from listening to their latest.
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The Fire Note
IDLES are a very important band right now as they call out everything like they see it. That transparency with the viciousness behind the music only leaves you with one thing to do with Ultra Mono – crank up the volume!
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Sputnik Music
Ultra Mono won't change anything about this perception, since it’s as political and enraged as their two previous albums. If anything, this is the most urgent IDLES record yet. Aside from the penultimate track "A Hymn", all songs immediately discharge their societal diatribe through punk punchers.
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Bristol in Stereo
With Ultra Mono, though, the music is front and centre, the driver, making the message travel that much further. The guitar sound is fuller and more powerful. Every song has its own identity, its own feel, and they don’t miss once – every track brings something essential. As impressive as the band’s fanbase already is, with December’s show at the 10,000-capacity Alexandra Palace having sold out in less than 24 hours, this record will surely win many new converts. This is album of the year material, make no mistake.
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The Irish Times
There is plenty to return to here – if you have the stamina. Even if you’re recumbent while listening to Ultra Mono, you’ll still need a bit of a sit down afterwards.
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When The Horn Blows
IDLES, the leaders of the new punk revolution have returned and are at their very best with their third album ‘Ultra Mono’.
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Kill Your Stereo
I cannot deny the awesome punk rock staying power that exists across much of this record. Both musical and lyrical.
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musicOMH
It’s unsubtle and it’s inconsistent, but Ultra Mono has an awkward frankness to it that isn’t entirely without charm.
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Soundsphere Magazine
the band have created a series of important, emotive bangers to soundtrack these times (and help people get through ‘em), and it will be one more step towards becoming a global musical phenomenon championing realism, honesty and love for the self, and others. There is no band out there as passionate, and dedicated to pure musical change than Idles right now. Once again, and for all – Idles, Britain’s most important band in 2020.
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PopMatters
IDLES, though, don't have much to say to that, except to put out another furious album, expanding the scope of their protest while maintaining their wry view of the world for Ultra Mono.
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Hotpress
Ultra Mono immediately marks itself as a different beast than its predecessors, taking influence from the world of hip-hop – thanks to additional programming from in-demand producer Kenny Beats, who’s helped to reignite the spirit of punk among a new generation of American rappers. The approach to songwriting, much of which was done in the recording booth, also feels fresh. While it’s certainly not polished poetry, it’s not pretending to be, either – instead opting for raw self-expression and sincere vulnerability.
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mxdwn Music
Ultra Mono shows how relevant IDLES are; they offer the same insight as always, but confront the issue directly with their own style. It’s a great album to listen to when people just feel angry and frustrated with the world. The wits of the lyrics are smart and make the album just so much more special.
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Vinyl Chapters
The rage and chaos of the music is what heightens the senses, but backing this up with insightful lyrics, clever one liners, unashamed honesty and brash uniqueness is what makes IDLES one of the UK’s most powerful and interesting bands.
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Earbuddy
Need something loud and obnoxious but with also strong social messages? Then, listen to this!
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Hackney Gazette
Ultra Mono might not quite match it predecessor, but it burns with a political and moral fire that few artists dare to light.
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Ghost Cult Magazine
Definitively, Ultra Mono is a sound of what Idles think their audience wants to hear, rather than what they are in 2020.
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Stereoboard
Love and hate are two sides of the same coin. Equally, being confident and insecure are not mutually exclusive, neither are being offensive and offended. These dichotomies run through IDLES’ third album, ‘Ultra Mono’, where they consistently say both fuck you and thank you.
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The Guardian
The Bristol punks return with more precision-tooled muscularity and a hint that they won’t be hidebound by genre.
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Crack Magazine
One could accuse IDLES of sometimes being a bit, shall we say, on the nose, but given the absolute shitshow masculinity has become in a post-Trump, post-Brexit era, perhaps they should be lauded for meeting these topics head on, and with brute force. Because at the end of the day, music – no, the world – needs them.
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Niner Times
In its entirety, “Ultra Mono” feels misguided and uncertain. For the most part, Idles sound upset at people for calling them cliche or performatively woke, and then proceed to be more cliche and performatively woke than they ever have before. There are a few diamonds in the rough on this album, but it seems that Idles have lost some of their shine. Or maybe we are all just tired of only looking to white men for political commentary.
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The Revue
This is the Bristolians’ sermon to the world, and even the most agnostic and apathetic will agree that we all share this desire to be a part of something. And we can be part of a revolution that unifies instead of divides.
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Loud and Quiet
Their schtick isn’t tired yet, the humour is as enjoyable as it ever was, and the world is still in a grim enough state that every emission from Joe Talbot is welcome. Ultra Mono is not a record to change anybody’s mind about IDLES, nor is it a sign of any dropoff in form.
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Invicta Magazine
This album is the most important release of the year, giving a truth tinted view on the current situation in a broken Britain.
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Dork
Because for all of the ugly rage and fury at modern life on display here, it is also a celebration of the beauty that can happen when people come together in love and unity to face the turmoil and traumas of an increasingly angry, shouty, scary world, and facing it armed only with a hug. In many ways a love letter to the online fan culture that has fuelled the band ever onwards and upwards, it would take a brave person to bet against this from firing IDLES to even more ridiculous levels.
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Let It Happen
Ultra Mono is an album that will please their devout followers (the AF gang) and fans of punk rock, but outside of that, it doesn’t achieve much else. It’s an album that serves to tell us that this band are perhaps not what they were set out to be.
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Mystic Sons
A strong continuation for them that shows everyone that the anger and tenacity of their sound is far from wearing thin.
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Music Existence
The coming of ‘Ultra Mono’ has not disappointed by providing the passion, power, and punk that we’ve all come to expect from IDLES. Despite first impressions of their music, frontman Joe Talbot makes sure to insist that their music is not supposed to bring about rage and aggression, but instead love and unity- and this record seems to be doing a fine job of that.
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VultureHound Magazine
IDLES creates a sound that makes you want to drive fast, punch a wall and be in the center of a mosh pit… if were possible all at once. The band keeps true to what they have created as a band in terms of their political stance and sound. It may not feel like this record is something revolutionary in terms of sound, but because of the nature of this band, they will always have topics to create around and because of that it will always feel new and energetic.
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Paperblog
On ‘Ultra Mono’, Idles have continued to deliver messages of hope that will belong on so many people’s stereos.
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Silent Radio
I’m a fan of the album, as I have been the previous two efforts. I think should anyone feel the need to create a “best of Idles” list, it would certainly include songs from ‘Ultra Mono’, as it would songs from the whole back catalogue. This is a strong continuation of what came before, it may be just as relevant to say Idles have released songs 26-37 as it is to say they’ve released their third album.
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The Needle Drop
Ultra Mono is Idles' most sonically and thematically focused album so far, occasionally to a slight fault.
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Under the Radar Magazine
That authenticity and openness keep the band as magnetic as ever on its newest record. As Talbot’s recurring lyric declares, “I am I.” With Ultra Mono, IDLES owns every bit of that statement and is all the better for it.
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Louder than War
It’s a wonderful record. It makes you dance, think, feel wild and gentle, sing and shout and want to change the world whilst embracing everyone you can in a physically socially distanced but mentally very socially attached kind of way.
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No Ripcord
No gripes here as IDLES deliver their most consistent album to date with a handful of their most rough-cut diamonds sparkling through. That Ultra Mono doesn’t have a sing-along single on par with Danny Nedelko should suit their surlier fans just fine.
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The Times
a judgmental tone undermines the energy.
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XS Noize
IDLES has therefore learned more about the economy of sound, and space and silence within songs without impeding their hungry adrenaline-fuelled rawness. IDLES has also evolved lyrically by using an adroit Molotov cocktail of wit, sophistication and even childishness.
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No More Workhorse
The album will definitely be one of the bigger indie-rock albums of the back half of the year. There is a feeling with some of these songs that you’ve heard them before, perhaps a warning sign that this band may repeat themselves every so often. Although those who loved IDLES previous two albums will be delighted with this. One of the most intense albums you’ll hear this year.
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Kerrang!
Bristol punks IDLES deliver a state of the world address in sharp, stark, brilliant fashion with Ultra Mono.
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Giglist
Ultra Mono might still the best album this half of the summer. It’s louder and angrier than ever – and in an era of rampant corporate greed, rainforest fires, authoritarianism, classism and police brutality, that’s a large part of what many of us desire.
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Narc Magazine
IDLES are back with a bang and their message is clear; everything is fucked, but it’s still not too late to tear it all down and rebuild the lot – stronger, kinder and better.
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Euphoriazine
Lyrically and sonically, IDLES have once again fired on all cylinders and produced an ear-pricking album that encourages us all to defeat the patriarchy of negativity and gloom by relishing and accepting our truest selves in the here and now.
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Rock Sins
Joe Talbot's performance and a great deal of lyrics let proceedings down.
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Stack
Ultra Mono is the straight-to-the-point, straight-to-the-jugular rock that IDLES do best.
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Upset Magazine
On 'Ultra Mono' IDLES push the boundaries of what has been expected from them with rightly-earned brazen confidence that has resulted in their best work to date. This is a band who no longer need to prove themselves.
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Northern Transmissions
Musically, Ultra Mono is as tight, ballistic, and in your face as IDLES have ever been. That owes greatly to the touch of hip hop producer Kenny Beats. Lyrically, Ultra Mono is louder – and prouder – than the band have ever been.
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Spectrum Culture
All in all the third album from IDLES is a confusing one. It blends the humor and chaos into a messy set of personal grievances. But as a group of white guys who threaten to kick your ass if you give them feedback, IDLES music feels hollow and fake. Talbot has said that he has to actually talk himself down from violence now, and while that may make a role model for those white male teens who shoot up schools, the rest of the public will just see him as another uncontrollable toxic male, and there are all too many of those these days
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Clash Magazine
A collection of undeniably invigorating songs that will inspire and provoke and empower.
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The Forty-Five
This is the beauty of ‘Ultra Mono’: with a vomiting of repressed, internal anger it preaches about the current state of the world and the daily struggles of all of us within it. Its rage is contagious, and it makes itself one of the most relevant records of 2020 thus far.
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