IDLES have shared a new single from their forthcoming Kenny Beats-produced LP, CRAWLER. Following lead offering ‘The Beachland Ballroom’, ‘CAR CRASH’ arrives with an accompanying video edited by the band’s Lee Kiernan from director Matthew Cusick’s ‘File On Motor Transgression, 2011’. Check it out below.
The song is about Joe Talbot’s real-life experience in a near-fatal car accident. In a statement, he described it as “the horrific, comedown hangover — waking up in the morning and realising the smashes, like, what the fuck am I doing with my life?” Guitarist/co-producer Mark Bowen added:
We wanted it to be as violent as possible to reflect that event. I really wanted it to be this sonic touchstone. We recorded the drums beforehand and put them on a vinyl acetate. Whenever you replay an acetate, because it is kind of like a liquid, it degrades every time. It touches on things being transient and momentary — even a single drum hit. It’s like a memory, when the moment has passed and you deal with the repercussions over and over again, and they morph and change into something else. It’s one of the first times on an IDLES song where we used proper effects on the vocals — it was Joe going through my pedal board, so you get both clarity and degradation.
IDLES’ CRAWLER arrives on November 12 via Partisan.
