CRAWLER

Pitchfork 7.0/10 Exploring personal subject matter and wider musical terrain, the Bristol band’s fourth album plays like the dark origin story for how Idles became the preeminent life coaches of modern post-punk.

The Needle Drop 6/10 Crawler lacks the impact of the band's past few LPs.

The Line of Best Fit 8/10 Once again, the band finds healing and beauty in their own chaotic vortex, and once again they invite everyone listening to do the same, joining them on their most exploratory and cathartic ride yet.

NME 4/5 The Bristol band's fourth album is a course correction, one that dials down the aggression in favour of reflection.

Evening Standard 4/5 There are occasional subtleties, as with the scratchy electronic layers on Progress, and something approaching conventional singing on the almost pretty The Beachland Ballroom. But the sound overall is pure battering ram.

Kerrang! 4/5 This might be a more reflective, experimental IDLES, but they remain a band filled equally with anger, humour and vitriol. And, whichever direction they take, it still sounds fantastic.

DIY 4/5 Things get truly exciting when IDLES combine the atmospheric with the experimental.

The Independent 4/5 The band’s signature punk rock sound underpins the album, but it’s on the stylistically divergent tracks that Idles flex a new skill. Crawler is ambitious in its scope, and it almost always pays off.

All Music 4/5 It has the potential to open the door to the Idles multiverse, where multiple versions of the band co-exist. Whilst it doesn't always stick the landing, the new spaces it does explore are well worth the journey.

Gigwise 8/10 Post-punk has always been a genre that only vaguely fitted IDLES, used only because it was a convenient way to compare them to their contemporaries. In some ways, CRAWLER is the closest that the Bristol five-piece have come to the now-overused label, but the album is, at its core, unpredictable.

Under The Radar 8.0/10 CRAWLER is the sound of a band intently looking forwards, even if that means revisiting their demons from the past.

Clash 8/10 IDLES' fourth record in just as many years is their most ambitious, most introspective, and most powerful to date.

Mojo 4/5 Idles are finding new directions home: the hallmark of a great band.

The Observer 5/5 Glass-gargling frontman Joe Talbot disinters his lifelong struggle with substance abuse over 14 songs, circling around a traumatic, drug-fuelled car crash. The band use everything they’ve got.

Loud and Quiet 7/10 If Crawler has a message, it’s that while it’s important to recognise the sins of the past, it does no good to dwell on them.

Spectrum Culture 72% It’s not the most welcoming IDLES record, nor does it represent the band at their artistic peak. Depending on what happens next, though, it might be the most important record in the band’s career, for regardless of its overall quality, Crawler does open up a realm of different artistic possibilities for a band that some had previously thought to be one-note.

Beats Per Minute 72% All in all, Crawler is a return to form for IDLES, albeit with a handful of sub-par offerings. There’s still more than enough here for them to be rabble-rousing festival headliners, but also some tracks that offer up new ideas that they could carry forward.

Uncut 7/10 The follow-up to Ultra Mono is a rich panorama of addiction.