Make Another World

Idlewild

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 3, 2007)
• Original Release Date: April 3, 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sanctuary Records
• ASIN: B000NJWJHA
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #90,833 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
For their fifth album, Idlewild's further refined their delivery, a brightly lit mix of emotive melody, distortion-filled guitars, and their calling card: Roddy Woomble's voice. He's been compared to Michael Stipe both tonally and lyrically, but Woomble leaps atop his lines. "In Competition for the Worst Time" coats his voice in a slightly warbling effect that he sharply cuts through, a dash of Stipe and a lot of energetic enunciation. The guitars on "Competition" and "Everything (As It Moves)" are twin throttles, chiming lead lines over rhythm-guitar scrambles of distortion and tunefulness, a truly collective effort. At its most poppy, during "No Emotion," Make Another World is a great case for pop-tilted post-punk, with Woomble intoning earnestly amidst that (again) chiming lead-guitar line and a bevy of harmony vocals. At its most aggressive, during "If It Takes You Home," the guitars sandblast the tune, asserting Idlewild's core function, as a band that's taken all cues, from Fugazi to R.E.M., and wrapped them into a distinct blend that merits fuller commercial appeal. --Andrew Bartlett

Product Description
2007 album from the Scottish rockers, their first release on the rejuvenated Sequel label. The album was recorded over a six week period in Edinburgh with longtime producer Dave Eringa. On Make Another World, the band return to a rockier sound reminiscent of their earlier releases. 10 tracks including the singles 'If It Takes You Home' and 'No Emotion'. Sequal.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I still can't deny, April 4, 2007

By	E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Making guitar pop is easy. Making good, complex guitar pop that evolves over the course of five albums... now that's a challenge.

And "Make Another World" shows that Scottish rockers Idlewild are still up to that challenge, wound with tight melodies and spiked with steel-edged riffs. It's a nice mingling of their prior albums' styles, with most of the strong points and few of the flaws.

It opens with a ringing, cycling electric riff, joined in by some rapid-fire drums and more riffs and basslines. Roddy Woomble sings rather sadly through the fast-paced rocker: "I know my name but I can't deny/I talk in silence like I'm used to/Graduation fits the worst time I could use/Confidence for the first time!"

The album zooms through a series of uptempo guitar-based rockers -- tightly-wound electric-guitar pop, rapid skittering rockers, and smashing hard-rock that just creeps over the line of catchiness. But they have a few slower songs as well -- ballads played with electric guitar, some slow-burning rockers that build up on a bed of roiling riffs, and more.

"Make Another World" seems to be striking a balance between their last two albums, one of which was hard-driving rock, and one which was mellow and melodic. So Idlewild gets the best of both worlds, creating rapid rock tunes and sprinkling them with melodic moments and some midtempo pop. If there's anything to complain about, it's that "If I Take You Home" seems too simplistic for the rest of the album.

But most of the time, their instrumentation is astoundingly good -- lots of ringing riffs and steely basslines, which are melded together into flexible, muscular melodies. Even when they play softer pop tunes like the title track, the instrumentation is smooth and strong. And they throw in a few scraping chords here and there, smashing drums and a little ripple of keyboard organ here and there.

And Woomble's slightly rough voice fits the music quite well, especially since his vocals can rise above the loudest rocker. And the songs he sings are nicely polished as well, poignant and a bit poetic: "And I curse the sun/As the moon outdarkens the sky/Your heart is beating in your palm... And if my brothers, and my sisters
Are in the air where the moonlight twists/I'll board this ship/But only a ship that sails to no destination..."

Idlewild stick to their strengths in "Make Another World," fusing their solid hard-rock with the more melodic edge of their previous album. Definitely a worthy album for this Scotrock band, and definitely worth hearing more of.