''Welcome'' is the first
extended play
An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record. by British
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Idles. The extended play was released originally as a demo on 31 December 2011 before being released for the public on 4 August 2012 through independent label, Fear Of Fiction.
The extended play has been described as drastically different from their current work, as the sound of this EP has been compared to having a more cleaner, post-punk sound more akin to the likes of
Interpol
The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...
,
Editors
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, or ...
, and
Radio 4.
Background
At the time of recording this album, the band was just a music duo, composed of singer
Joe Talbot
Joseph Lyle Talbot (born July 11, 1990) is an American filmmaker. His debut feature film, ''The Last Black Man in San Francisco'' (2019), which he co-wrote and directed, won the Best Director prize at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The film i ...
and bassist Adam Devonshire, who met while at College in
Exeter, eventually deciding to start a band.
Idles have their roots in the Bat-Cave Night Club in
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
. According to Talbot, "It took us a long time to get productive because we didn’t know what the fuck we were doing at all, we were fucking terrible for a long time." The band's first release was the ''Welcome'' EP in 2012. By 2014 the band comprised Talbot, Devonshire, guitarists Mark Bowen and Lee Kiernan, and drummer Jon Beavis.
[Murray, Eoin (2017)]
Stendhal Syndrome: Idles Interviewed
, The Quietus
''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics.
Content
''The Quietu ...
, 29 June 2017. Retrieved 8 July 2017 They released a second EP, ''Meat'', and ''Meta'', an EP of remixes, in 2015, and then started writing songs for their debut album.
Critical reception
At the time of the EP, the band was still relatively unknown outside of the local music scene in their native Bristol.
Local music website ''Gold Flake Paint'' reviewed the album in a mixed review calling it mysterious. Write, Tom Johnson, summarized the EP as "across this impressive introduction Idles show glimpses of light and dark, restraint and release, and joy and sorrow; to the point where you’re never quite sure where you stand with them – and whether you are, in fact, welcome at all. Something tells us it’ll be worth sticking around to find out though."
Track listing
Legacy
Members of the band have stated in retrospect that they hate ''Welcome'' and feel that the direction of the extended play was aimless. Critics in retrospective reviews of the EP felt the album was too cautious and sounded too much like other post-punk revival bands rather than their own identity.
Of the time of recording and of the EP, Joe Talbot said that "it took us a long time to get productive because we didn’t know what the fuck we were doing at all, we were fucking terrible for a long time."
Nevertheless, the album has been credited as an album that broke Idles into relevancy and fostered fans, although fans have been critical of the album. During a show in September 2018, a fan in the audience requested the band would play a song off of ''Welcome'' which was met from giggles and jeers from both people in the audience and members of the band.
Talbot has also felt that ''Welcome'' did help the band find their feet in due time although he would not herald the album personally as a music accomplishment.
References
External links
*
{{Idles
2012 EPs
Idles (band) EPs