15th July - Idlewild's The Remote Part

Artist – Album: Idlewild – The Remote Part

Released:  15^th July 2002

Sounds Like: Epic Scottish indie rock

Everybody’s been there – listening to music you used to like when you were a kid can be excruciating.  Quite what made me decide that Cast were the best band in the world when I was in primary school is beyond me. Still, it could have been worse – I remember going round to a good friend of mines house one summer day whilst we were in high school and I was shocked to discover that he owned only 2 albums: One Jon Bon Jovi live album and one pristine copy of the eurotrashy Aqua’s Aquarium. With this in mind, I reviewed Idlewild’s The Remote Part with much trepidation – I loved it when I was at school, but would I still it now I’m kind of all grown up?

Well, yeah. Because it’s still good. I mean, it does sound a little bit of its time – the band manages for the most part to steer clear of the Travis-isms but a few fey lyrics do sneak in and ‘American English’, for all its grand charm, isn’t far removed from Coldplay’s ‘In My Place’. But it maintains the interest throughout, with its mix of spicy indie rock and gentle, harmonious acoustic ditties. Of the former, ‘You Held the World in Your Arms’, ‘Stay the Same’ and ‘(I Am) What I Am Not’ are the best, whilst the softer efforts such as the layered ‘Live in a Hiding Place’, ‘Tell Me Ten Words’ and ‘In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction’ still delight.

In fact not many things have managed the transition from my childhood to adult life as comfortably. Not wolfing down whole tins of hot dogs, not graffitiing about which girl I fancy, not having the fringe of my hair in curtains, not my near addiction to chocolate raisins, not wearing short sleeve t-shirts on top of long sleeve shirts, not...

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       You Held the World in Your Arms – 3:21

2.       A Modern Way of Letting Go – 2:23

3.       American English – 4:34

4.       I Never Wanted – 3:55

5.       (I Am) What I Am Not – 2:43

6.       Live in a Hiding Place – 3:16

7.       Out of Routine – 3:09

8.       Century After Century – 4:01

9.       Tell Me Ten Words – 3:46

10.   Stay the Same – 3:11

11.   In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction – 3:55

Listen to ‘Tell Me Ten Words’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC2kKNSDho0