Joy as an Act of Resistance | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | 31 August 2018 | |||
Recorded | 2017–2018 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 42:14 | |||
Label | Partisan | |||
Producer |
| |||
Idles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Joy as an Act of Resistance | ||||
|
Joy as an Act of Resistance is the second studio album by British rock band Idles, released on 31 August 2018 by Partisan Records. Following the success of their debut album Brutalism , the band started recording new material for their next album. Taking inspiration from the similarly titled 2008 poem by Toi Derricotte, Joy as an Act of Resistance tells stories from Joe Talbot's troubled past and lyrics that deal with toxic masculinity, love, self-love, immigration, Brexit, and class. The album garnered acclaim from critics upon release. Joy as an Act of Resistance peaked at number 5 on the UK Albums Chart and spawned two official singles: "Danny Nedelko" and "Never Fight a Man with a Perm". To promote the record, the band toured across Japan, North America, and Europe.
The band started recording the album in 2017. Singer Joe Talbot stated "This album is an attempt to be vulnerable to our audience and to encourage vulnerability; a brave naked smile in this shitty new world." [2]
According to Talbot "lots of songs got scrapped because there was this pressure, which we were carrying but not talking about. We were trying to sustain the success of 'Brutalism', to basically remake it. So we kind of scrapped all the songs and talked about why we weren't enjoying writing it." [3]
The album was produced by British record producer and musician, Paul Frazer (known professionally as "SPACE") [4] and mixed by Adam Greenspan and Nick Launay. The album's cover art features a photograph of a fight at a wedding in 1968 that Talbot saw on Instagram. [5] The title phrase is similar to the title of the 2008 poem, "Joy Is An Act of Resistance" [6] (part of a series of poems called "The Telly Cycle") by Pushcart Prize-winning poet Toi Derricotte, whose work as a Black woman explores race and identity. [7]
The album's lyrics deal with toxic masculinity, love, self-love, immigration, Brexit, and class. [3] "June" deals with the death in childbirth of Talbot's daughter Agatha. [3] [8] It also includes a cover version of the Solomon Burke hit "Cry To Me". [8]
Bob Boilen, writing for NPR, sat down with singer Joe Talbot for a track by track analysis of the album where Talbot described why he chose to write about his troubled past, the inseparability of the human portrait and political song, love, the death of his stillborn daughter and what it means to call oneself a parent, toxic masculinity, Brexit, his hate of tabloid journalism and more. Boilen stated that "The stories on Joy as an Act of Resistance are taken from real life: a humane look at immigration through singer Joe Talbot's friend Danny Nedelko; the "importance of grieving parents' right to call themselves mothers and fathers"; the "horrid corners" of Joe Talbot's past all the while celebrating human flaws and professing love with a deep urgency." And that "Joy as an Act of Resistance is a thoughtful attempt at loving one's self while also understanding the importance of community and trust." [9]
Four of the album's tracks were made available for download prior to its release: "Colossus", "Danny Nedelko" (named after Talbot's friend of the same name and singer with the band Heavy Lungs), "Samaritans", and "Great".
To promote the album, the band announced a world tour taking in Japan, North America, and Europe. [2] The day before the album's release, an art exhibition in London opened, displaying and selling artworks inspired by the album, with the proceeds going to the charity Samaritans. [3] An interview with Talbot aired on ITV News at Ten , discussing the album. [8]
On 20 December 2019, over 1 year after its release, Joy as an Act of Resistance was certified Silver by the BPI for selling 60,000 copies in the United Kingdom. [10]
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 8.5/10 [11] |
Metacritic | 88/100 [12] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [13] |
Chicago Tribune | [14] |
The Guardian | [15] |
The Independent | [16] |
Mojo | [17] |
NME | [18] |
Pitchfork | 6.8/10 [19] |
Q | [20] |
The Times | [21] |
Vice | A− [22] |
Joy as an Act of Resistance was met with widespread critical acclaim. Jordan Bassett, reviewing the album for NME , awarded the album five stars, calling it "an instant classic". [18] Dave Simpson, for The Guardian gave it four stars, describing it as "11 songs of focused, cathartic rage, rooted in their own experiences", and calling Idles "Britain’s most necessary band". [15] Mark Beaumont of The Independent also gave it four stars. [16] Dom Gourlay, for Drowned in Sound, called it "one of 2018's most eagerly anticipated releases", awarding it a score of 9 out of 10, and going on to say that it is "everything anyone could have wanted or expected it to be: Idles have released the most relevant and at times gut wrenching album of the year." [8] Classic Rock magazine gave it the same score, calling it "a heart-breaking but jubilant exploration of joy, honesty, fragility and expression as our most powerful means of human resistance". [23]
Ged Babey, writing for Louder Than War called it "One of the most inspiring albums I have heard for a long, long time. Punk Rock reinvented and not wearing a mask of masculinity or yoke of tradition, but a wicked smile and its broken heart exposed but still beating in its chest. Punk rock which instead of calling for Anarchy and saying I Don’t Care is shouting UNITY! and LOVE IS ALL." [24] Jake Kennedy, for Record Collector , gave it four stars, calling it "an album that manages to combine grief, self-loathing and a realisation that life’s better played honest, with a fine-tuned, brutal sound: something like bent sheet metal being hammered straight." [25] Ava Muir from Exclaim! applauded the album, saying, "IDLES turn trauma and anger into affirming lessons on Joy As an Act of Resistance, crafting a cathartic masterpiece that wears its heart — broken, but still beating — on its sleeve." [26] Ryan Drever, for The Skinny , gave it three stars, stating that "many of these songs raise some serious hell", but viewed the tracks as too similar. [27] PopMatters' Paul Carr gave it 9/10, commenting on what he saw as "a profound sense of joy on the album". [28]
In the review for AllMusic, Liam Martin concluded that "Overall, Joy as an Act of Resistance manages to plumb new depths for Idles — that they've achieved another record in such a short space of time is admirable, let alone one that shines head and shoulders over the majority of their peers — and it certainly upholds their status as one of the U.K.'s most exciting new acts." [13]
Publication | Accolade | Rank | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
BBC Radio 6 Music | Top 10 Albums of 2018 | 1 | |
Clash | Albums Of The Year 2018 | 10 | |
Classic Rock | 50 Best Albums Of 2018 | 10 | |
Crack Magazine | The Top 50 Albums of 2018 | 5 | |
The Daily Beast | Top 10 Albums of 2018 | 7 | |
Double J | The 50 Best Albums of 2018 | 4 | |
Drowned in Sound | 15 Favourite Albums of 2018 | 2 | |
Fopp | Top 100 Albums of 2018 | 2 | |
Gigwise | 51 Best Albums of 2018 | 9 | |
The Guardian | The 50 Best Albums of 2018 | 6 | |
Kerrang! | Top 50 Albums of 2018 | 9 | |
The Line of Best Fit | The Best Albums of 2018 | 3 | |
Loud and Quiet | Best 40 albums of 2018 | 9 | |
Mojo | Top 75 Albums of 2018 | 6 | |
musicOMH | Top 50 Albums Of 2018 | 7 | |
NME | Albums Of The Year 2018 | 3 | |
Paste | Top 50 Albums of 2018 | 25 | |
100 Best Albums of the 2010s | 76 | ||
Piccadilly Records | Top 100 Albums of 2018 | 25 | |
PopMatters | The 70 Best Albums of 2018 | 3 | |
Q | Top 50 Albums of 2018 | 7 | |
Rolling Stone | 20 Best Metal Albums of 2018 | 15 | |
Rough Trade | Top 100 Albums of 2018 | 3 | |
The Skinny | Top 10 Albums of 2018 | 4 | |
Sputnikmusic | Top 50 Albums of 2018 | 28 | |
Uncut | Top 50 Albums of 2018 | 27 | |
Under the Radar | Top 100 Albums of 2018 | 20 |
All tracks are written by Adam Devonshire, Jonathan Beavis, Joseph Talbot, Lee Kiernan, and Mark Bowen except track 11, written by Bert Russell
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Colossus" | 5:39 |
2. | "Never Fight a Man with a Perm" | 3:48 |
3. | "I'm Scum" | 3:09 |
4. | "Danny Nedelko" | 3:24 |
5. | "Love Song" | 3:05 |
6. | "June" | 3:35 |
7. | "Samaritans" | 3:30 |
8. | "Television" | 3:12 |
9. | "Great" | 2:44 |
10. | "Gram Rock" | 2:29 |
11. | "Cry to Me" (Solomon Burke cover) | 2:14 |
12. | "Rottweiler" | 5:25 |
Total length: | 42:14 |
Idles
Production
Chart (2018) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australia (ARIA Hitseekers) [57] | 11 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [58] | 20 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) [59] | 81 |
French Albums (SNEP) [60] | 74 |
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [61] | 49 |
Irish Albums (IRMA) [62] | 56 |
Scottish Albums (OCC) [63] | 6 |
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [64] | 49 |
UK Albums (OCC) [65] | 5 |
US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard) [66] | 4 |
US Independent Albums (Billboard) [67] | 26 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom (BPI) [68] | Gold | 100,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
Closer is the second and final studio album by the English rock band Joy Division, released on 18 July 1980 by Factory Records. Produced by Martin Hannett, it was released two months after the suicide of the band's lead singer and lyricist Ian Curtis. The album reached No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart and peaked at No. 3 in New Zealand in September 1981. Closer was also named NME Album of the Year. It was remastered and re-released in 2007.
Hurricane is the tenth studio album by singer Grace Jones, released in 2008, and her first album of new material in 19 years. The album includes a number of autobiographical songs, and the title track was first recorded as a 1997 collaboration with Tricky under the title "Cradle to the Grave". The album sold over 100,000 copies in Europe. Three years after the original release, Jones released a dub version of it: Hurricane – Dub came out on 5 September 2011.
I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It is the second studio album by English band the 1975, released on 26 February 2016 through Dirty Hit and Polydor. In 2014, frontman Matty Healy released a series of cryptic tweets containing lyrics from the album, revealing its title the following year. After their social accounts were deleted and reinstated with a new visual identity, the band officially confirmed the album in September 2015, a month before "Love Me" was released as the lead single. Over the course of five months, "Ugh!", "Somebody Else" and "The Sound" were released as singles, with "A Change of Heart" released four days prior to release. "She's American" and "Loving Someone" were later released in November 2016 and February 2017 as the final singles.
Beerbongs & Bentleys is the second studio album by American rapper and singer Post Malone, released by Republic Records on April 27, 2018. The album features guest appearances from Swae Lee, 21 Savage, Ty Dolla Sign, Nicki Minaj, G-Eazy, and YG. It includes production from frequent collaborators Louis Bell and Frank Dukes, alongside London on da Track, Andrew Watt, Tank God, Twice as Nice, Teddy Walton, Scott Storch, and PartyNextDoor, among others.
Wonderful Wonderful is the fifth studio album by American rock band the Killers, released on September 22, 2017, by Island Records. It was their first studio album in five years, since Battle Born (2012), and their fifth consecutive studio album to top the UK Albums Chart. It is also their first album to top the Billboard 200, moving 118,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. Wonderful Wonderful is the Killers' most recent album to feature the band's core line-up, with lead guitarist Dave Keuning and bassist Mark Stoermer being absent on Imploding the Mirage (2020) and Pressure Machine (2021), respectively.
Idles are a British rock band formed in Bristol in 2009. The band consists of Adam Devonshire (bass), Joe Talbot (vocals), Mark Bowen (guitar), Lee Kiernan (guitar), and Jon Beavis (drums).
Love Yourself: Her is the fifth extended play by South Korean boy group BTS. The EP was released on September 18, 2017, by Big Hit Entertainment. The album was released in four versions and contains nine tracks, with "DNA" as its lead single.
Bloom is the second studio album by Australian singer and songwriter Troye Sivan, released on 31 August 2018 through EMI Music Australia and Capitol Records. The album follows up his 2015 debut studio album, Blue Neighbourhood, and features guest appearances from Gordi and Ariana Grande. It was preceded by the release of the singles "My My My!", "The Good Side", "Bloom", "Dance to This" and "Animal".
Chris is the second studio album by French singer Christine and the Queens, released on 21 September 2018 in both English and French versions through Because Music. It was preceded by the release of two singles, each of which were released in both English and French versions: "Girlfriend" / "Damn, dis-moi", featuring Dâm-Funk, and "Doesn't Matter" / "Doesn't Matter ". An English-language single, "5 Dollars", was also released alongside an S&M-inspired video, followed by the French version of "La Marcheuse".
Brutalism is the debut studio album by British rock band Idles, released in March 2017.
Doom Days is the third studio album by British indie pop band Bastille, released on 14 June 2019 by Virgin EMI Records. It was preceded by the release of the four singles "Quarter Past Midnight", "Doom Days", "Joy" and "Those Nights", and followed by "Another Place". "Those Nights" was premiered on Beats 1 with Zane Lowe on 4 June 2019. The band played music festivals in the UK and across Europe from May to August 2019 in support of the album. An extended version of the album was released in 6 December 2019 with 11 extra tracks.
"Danny Nedelko" is a song by British rock band Idles. The track was the second single from their second studio album, Joy as an Act of Resistance. The track was released as a single on 5 June 2018.
"Never Fight a Man with a Perm" is a song by British rock band Idles. It is the fifth single from their second album, Joy as an Act of Resistance. The track was released as a single for streaming on 2 September 2018 through the band's YouTube channel.
Idles are a British-Irish rock band. Formed in Bristol in 2009, the band consists of Joe Talbot (vocals), Mark Bowen (guitar), Lee Kiernan (guitar), Adam Devonshire (bass) and Jon Beavis (drums). The band released five extended plays before they released their debut album, Brutalism in 2017. Brutalism was met to critical acclaim, as was their second, third and fourth studio albums, Joy as an Act of Resistance in 2018, Ultra Mono in 2020, and Crawler in 2021. The band's fifth studio album, Tangk, was released on 16 February 2024.
A Beautiful Thing: Idles Live at le Bataclan is a live album by Idles recorded at Le Bataclan on 3 December 2018, the final performance on the band's first Joy as an Act of Resistance tour, and released on 6 December 2019 by Partisan Records.
Joseph Talbot is a British singer and songwriter. He has been the vocalist for British rock band Idles since their inception in 2009.
Ultra Mono is the third studio album by British rock band Idles, released on 25 September 2020 by Partisan Records. Following on from their previous album Joy as an Act of Resistance, the album further explores themes established in the band's previous works such as critique of capitalism, revolution, class struggle, mental health and toxic masculinity, as well as the positive and negative aspects of the band's newfound fame.
Heavy Lungs is a British noise rock band based in Bristol. The band includes drummer George Garratt, guitarist Oliver Southgate, vocalist Danny Nedelko, and bassist James Minchall.
Crawler is the fourth album by British rock band Idles, released on 12 November 2021.
Tangk is the fifth studio album by the British rock band Idles, released on 16 February 2024 through Partisan Records. It was produced by Nigel Godrich, Kenny Beats and the Idles member Mark Bowen. It was promoted with the singles "Dancer", "Grace" and "Gift Horse", and received acclaim from critics.