Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Idlewild
Idlewild tabs Idlewild discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Idlewild guitar tabs

CD reviews

Warnings/Promises

Idlewild - Warnings/Promises Audio CD

A fair review of the Idlewild "Warnings/Promises" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Idlewild reviews here, or go back to the Idlewild tabs.

Band: Idlewild
Title: Warnings/Promises
Rating:

Release Date: 2005-03-08
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Love Steals Us from Loneliness 2: Welcome Home 3: I Want a Warning 4: I Understand It 5: As If I Hadn't Slept 6: Too Long Awake 7: Not Just Sometimes But Always 8: Space Between All Things 9: Capitan 10: Blame It on Obvious Ways 11: Disconnected 12: Goodnight

Eclectic Loveliness
This album is a nice mix of songs, some softer and poignant (Goodnight and Not Just Sometimes But Always) and a few with a harder edge (I Want A Warning). I love this album! Of course, having liked their past albums as well, I was predisposed to like it. My favorites would be "Welcome Home" and "El Capitan" (which incidentally caused me to look up El Capitan on Google and find out it's a cliff face in California-nice reference boys!) I guess I am surprised their first song released was "Love Steals Us From Loneliness"; it is a decent song, but not the strongest on the album. (And actually, for the person who was looking for a radio station that plays Idlewild, there is one here in Minneapolis, MN called The Current (public radio) that has played "Love Steals Us" recently. Maybe you just need to look for a modern rock/alternative rock station, or even a college station) I really think if they release "El Capitan" or "Welcome Home" in the states that could help them break through and become more well known. It was surprising how many of the songs had a sort of "countryish/folksy" feel to me. The harmonizing in the songs is just great- they have wonderful voices and really know how to mesh melodies. I wish these guys all the best- they are great fellows and wonderful, articulate musicians!! If you like this CD I recommend their CDs "The Remote Part" or "100 Broken Windows".

Stellar
I can tell you this, that on my first few listens thru, I really like this cd. This is my first Idlewild purchase, so I have no basis to complain about their supposed betrayal from their earlier cd's. I haven't heard a track that disappoints me and that I find the tunes very catchy and memorable.

Somebody tell me where this Top 40 station is, that Idlewild is going to get played on, what, in between Ashlee Simpson and the Black Eyed Peas? This type of music won't ever get played on existing Top 40 radio because there isn't a programmer out there with enough intelligence or taste or cajones to add music like this. . . where the group actually plays their instruments and sings their hearts out. . thank god bands make music for themselves first and foremost and not "fans" whose childish disappointment in their evolvement makes them dismiss the band forever, what a load of crap and it doesn't help me or anyone else make an educated guess on whether to buy or not.
This isn't close to Top 40 music, so that to me is a baseless complaint.

I'll find it much easier to go back, now, to purchase their earlier works (which I always planned on, but this convinced me even more), I'm pleased with this new release. Its very strong from start to finish and right now favorite tracks include: "El Capitan", "Blame it on Obvious Ways", "I Want a Warning" and "I Understand It". . . but thats today.

I know this is the type of cd that I'm going to go back to often, it will stand up to repeated listenings, great music always does. This will be the one, whether it does or doesn't sound like earlier efforts, that folks will point to down the road as the one that gets them the praise they deserve.
.

Copy protection is evil
I have over 3000 CDs; I thought I was one of "the good guys" but I've just wasted and hour horsing around with this. Idlewild sleeps with the devil, at least on the US release, because the thing can't be copied to my iPod. How wrong it is. .

Wrong side of the bell curve
The Remote Part was a perfect album in my opinion, balancing mood and tone very nicely. Idlewild's albums had been getting progressively better, both musically and lyrically, but with this one I think the end is in sight. But Idlewild seems to be taking the path trodden my the Manic Street Preachers in the 90s -- the musical arrangements all getting a little too lush, and lyrically they're falling apart, usually into post-adolescance, most notably when Roddy's whining about digging his car out from the snow and wondering where the summer went. Pretty awkward stuff. I was expecting much more from this album. Although it's pretty good AOR by most standards -- not my genre, quite frankly, but if it was this would be it -- I think I'll catch up with them in two albums' time when they're back in some Scottish basement recording an album in two weeks, as MSP did in its native Wales with its surprisingly good Know Your Enemy.

The most original.
However they couch the melodic line musically, every inch of the song is covered perfectly. Idlewild create songs that are airtight. Musically, they vary from sounds that would go over well with the pitchfork crowd, from sounds that my mom might like, or your grandmom. But that seems to be only MY restrictions on what is sonically hip, not theirs. They follow the none-appreciated and unexpected path and suit each song uniquely. And as long as they keep making perfectly crafted songs they can continue to make them sound limper than I would make them. Speaking of limp, Roddy Woomble has the strongest, fullest, voice of the modern bands that I am aware of. And there is absolutely no one better at lyrics.
" All the mistakes I made,
I made because I didn't know my self very well,
and by this stage,
I feel like I really should know myself,
I'm forced into a sponsored silence,
where I'm only paid if I don't say what I want to say,

Open up your arms and say,
I can't throw it all away,
open up your arms and say,
I can't give it all away,
I couldn't even care what you say,
you change,
you change everyday,
and blame it on your obvious ways,

I gamble my presents,
and full the jukebox full of my favorite phrases,
as we cling to the nightclub walls,
we whisper the words,
we whisper them wrong,
and so we screamed out the wrong words,
into our own song,
and with the kiss that tasted like drugs,
which taste like,
we'll never ever make it home,"

Add another chorus at the end of that and add eleven more songs full of lyrics of that mind numbing, emotive, intricately phrased, multiple sides of the story storytelling and you get just one aspect of the most original melodic rock\pop band on the planet. Check out more lyrics and some videos if you are curious and then buy 2 albums, one for you and the other for your grandma. [. . . ]
" It seems far too easy to say the same things,
I'll choose my own way to use my life up,
finally found a new way,
say the same things,
in imaginary ways,
I'll use my life up,

You were looking at pictures in the distance,
hoping to see the future in your pictures,
of the distance hoping to see,
the future looking at pictures in the distance,
hoping to see the future through your pictures,
of the distance,
hoping to see,
the future in your pictures of the distance" .

You can see a complete list of all Idlewild discography, or go back to the Idlewild tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.