lambchops's Full Review: The Remote Part by Idlewild
Review after review of positive words got me all excited about Scottish rockers Idlewild and their third album 2002’s The Remote Part. But first, I checked out indie debut Hope Is Important.
And, well, I have to say that my opinions are slightly different than those of the usual reviewer. See, I actually liked Hope Is Important and the album’s rusty distortion, strangeness, and general noise. The Remote Part on the other hand is flawed—certainly it sounds good, but it also is absolutely derivative of every other damn “indie” rock artist out there. Not nearly as lovely as contemporary personal favorites The Posies, I find myself just not particularly caring about the band’s newest incarnation.
For an album released in 2002, it is a shame that the music is stuck in an era five or ten years earlier. A time when popular radio was split between melodic post-grunge mushiness, Green Day’s punk-pop, and tidily produced wanna be rock—and as such I’m not sure that the band’s new music has any real place on radio today. Not to say that The Remote Park sounds bad; it is intrinsically clear that Idlewild took great care in the production values. But this care also proves to be over-done and dramatic to the point of pretentiousness.
The Remote Part is undoubtedly the bands unabashed attempt at selling out. They clearly want to be heard on every radio across Europe and the US. And considering that their sound is at times akin to that of every bland pop-rock band in existence and at other times something not all that different from every bland pop-punk band in existence their attempt probably wasn’t completely in vain. But in clearly selling out so easily and quickly, I find myself alienated from the formerly more adventurous band. And as good as The Remote Part sounds on the surface, when I take a bite it leaves me with an unpleasant aftertaste.
As with all bands that try to be something they are not with such intensity, Idlewild is completely and utterly unable to put together a completely cohesive album. The Remote Part starts out fine enough for what it is, but as the album progresses it wanes in intensity, intelligence, and purpose. Idlewild would have been better off to stick to their guns and roots, and not try so incredibly hard to attain mainstream acceptance. It could happen in the future, maybe even the next album, but nothing of much note will occur unless they figure out exactly who it is they are. The Remote Part is average at best and shaky at worst, and is clearly and hopefully not indicative of Idlewild’s talent or zest.
Vocalist Roddy Woomble possesses a fine enough talent—although his nasally squawk on The Remote Part is pushed to a level somewhere between Michael Stipe and Dave Gahan. This clear tendency is possibly in part due to Idlewild’s shifting identity and young age. But in any case, I find myself wondering who the heck the band really is and what Woomble really sounds like. Rounding out the lineup (which has changed a number of times since the band’s inception) at the time of The Remote Part were Rod Jones (guitar), Colin Newton (drums), Allan Stewart (guitar) and Bob Fairfoull (bass).
One thing that Idlewild got right was keeping the length of their third album to a minimum. It clocks in at just less than forty minutes for the eleven songs—anything more would have been incredibly painful and unquestionably pointless. In all honesty what direction and purpose the band has is presented and then subsequently almost completely worn out by the end of the disc’s first half. I admittedly expected something more, better, and different from The Remote Part; that is the entire jist of my review here. What happened to the band I once had some love for? They are now tidily coiffed and molded pop-rock princes who seem afraid to take risks. Give me a band of brooding guys any day in exchange for this herd of smiling nincompoops.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I’m certain that by now I’ve turned into a horned, probably evil, beast of a woman to those of you who have heard this album. I’m also pretty much positive that what I’ve said so far sounds off-base and off-kilter and off-my-rocker. But bear with me. I don’t completely hate The Remote Part…it has a few outstanding moments that are, in my humblest of opinions, indicative of the band’s true nature and talent. So no, neither Idlewild nor The Remote Part is a complete write-off. It is just a bit too overrated.
Trudging through The Remote Part has been a chore for me. After owning the album for months now, I’ve only recently been able to concentrate for enough time to listen to the whole album. The trouble all starts with the first song You Held the World in Your Arms which, strangely enough, is also one of the best known songs from the disc. You Held the World in Your Arms is too long and after only a verse is tire. I do like the melody, but there’s only so much of it I can handle.
I’ve heard this album described as calm. It is not. Rather, it’s a schizophrenic disc that shuffled from pop-rock, the Smiths-like melodies, and then to punk-pop blandness. My advice to Idlewild is to pick a style and go with it. To mush everything onto one album isn’t challenging in the least—it is just disturbing. A Modern Way of Letting Go is a good attempt with a bad execution. It’s too long for the kinetic pace of the song—it could have easily been shorter. And maybe that’s another fault of the album on the whole. There is just too much of it.
As The Remote Part continues, I’m just not impressed on the whole. There are indeed a few moments that strike a chord but on the whole it just lacks direction. And a directionless album with an equally purposeless band is wrong in every sense of the word. Even with songs like the upbeat, splendidly acoustic American English and the equally refreshing Live in a Hiding Place present to shake things up I still cannot find much merit in this CD.
The Remote Place only gets worse as the album plods toward an end. Whatever semblance of order that is present early on is all shot to hell with the absurdly bad Out of Routine. It is here that the album begins to feel rushed—seriously. The production nor Woomble’s vocals are good. It really is best to completely disregard the second half of the disc.
Idlewild has talent; listeners have seen flashes here and in the past. But until the band figures out who and what they are no album is going to be quite right. Overall, I’m utterly unimpressed by The Remote Part. It might appeal to fans of mainstream pop-rock, but to those looking for something more than that out of music it’s nothing at all special or worthwhile. Good production, but bad songs.
Rating: 2/5 stars
Track Listing:
01. You Held The World In Your Arms
02. Modern Way Of Letting Go, A
03. American English
04. I Never Wanted
05. (I Am) What I Am Not
06. Live In A Hiding Place
07. Out Of Routine
08. Century After Century
09. Tell Me Ten Words
10. Stay The Same
11. In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction
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