Joy as an Act of Resistance

Joy as an Act of Resistance is a great punk rock album by IDLES. All tracks are full of passion, power and vulnerability. "Colossus" and "Danny Nedelko" are two of their best tracks.

This really doesn’t match my energy. This is very ugly and angry. I submitted Jack Johnson, man.

The album that shaped a good chunk of my music taste now

These guys are from my city! I know people who know them. They're good fun and raucous, but also not afraid of having conversations about male mental health issues.

The rhytms are very powerfull. It feels filled with rage and lots of societal critcism. And everything fits neatly together.

Good, although this class of heavy, shout sung post-punk that so many bands do has grown stale on me. “Gram Rock” stood out as a great track

Rating: 10/10

Random notes about this crank-wave masterpiece: The British Isles' post-punk revival is not exactly over yet (you can still see the very last ripples of its initial splash today), and yet this album is already iconic. Add this, Idles' debut *Brutalism*, Fontaines D.C.'s and Shame's own debuts *Dogrel* and *Songs Of Praise* to the original list. That's the sheer minimum you can do. "Never Fight A Man With A Perm" is a humongous banger. "Danny Nedelko" is a humongous banger as well. You'd be hard-pressed to find tracks this iconic (here's that word again) to define that post-Brexit, crank-wave zeitgeist. For all the folks who think the progressive politics of Idles' is mere "virtue signalling", eat my shorts. I don't even know what "virtue signalling" really means. Either you have virtues, or you don't and it's only wolf eats wolf out there. I'll defend to the death a song celebrating a friendship with an immigrant. That's not negotiable. Opener "Colossus" and closer "Rottweiler" are humongous pieces of music, period. "I'm Scum" is a riotous cut that's also a thing of wonder to witness live. "Samaritans" is a killer track with a killer chorus. "Television" is another gem with terrific hooks. "Great" is a hilarious cut that's catchy as hell. Shall I continue? Listeners who think this record is one-note, either musically or thematically, need to listen to "June" again, about the death of Joe Talbot's stillborn daughter. For all the people complaining about Talbot's sloganeering, let it be known that his line about toxic masculinity in "Samaritans", "This is why you never see your father cry", sends shivers down the spine of the middle-aged man writing these words every. fucking. time. The artwork of this LP could very well represent the potential bickering between listeners this generator could create if you gathered all of us in the same place. If only for this, you should give it a bonus half-point. 🙃 Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 64 (including this one). Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 81 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 148 ---- Emile... Ma propre balise temporelle... Tu trouveras mes trois dernières réponses sous les albums d'Eric B. & Rakim, Shpongle et Ookla The Mok

What a joy to see this on the list!

Wow… this is really impressive modern punk rock - angry, smart, compassionate, insightful… didn’t see this coming. The album cover with a wedding brawl from the year of my birth added to the whole experience as well.

November 14, 2025 HL: "Colossus", "Scum", "Danny Nedelko", "Samaritans", "Great" Wild connection to the original list, in that "Cry to Me" by Solomon Burke is track 11. Completely did not notice it, until I read that they covered it as an apparent reference to the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. (I haven't seen the movie and Solomon Burke is NOT on the soundtrack CD I have at home.) Anyway, listening to this right after Songs: Ohia was some fine whiplash. I surprise myself by preferring IDLES's 2018 release, considering I would typically choose melancholy folk after something that takes after the 80s/90s hardcore scene. (I would have believed that "Television" was from a Black Flag album)

I liked this. Good, raucous punk energy. 4 stars.

Punk A F

Relatively decent punk album, but I'm not a huge fan of punk. I can't fault it though, it's well done and "does exactly what it says on the tin". I like the various nods to modern pop culture like "10 points to Gryffindor"

I was put off listening to this LP when it dropped for some reason, maybe because my early listens felt so dramatically different from the lean, gritty perfection of 'Brutalism.' Listening in full now, some of those early beliefs are dispelled and some confirmed – the opening salvo through the middle of the LP rips, the wiry guitar and unique arrangements giving the band a distinct, different sound from their debut while remaining distinctly IDLES. It was the complete antithesis of what I needed while stuck on a flight, the album daring me to sit with all that energy and raw power it was delivering. Midway through, however, glaring issues with the songwriting start to drag the momentum down no matter how hard the band continues to charge ahead. Joe Talbot's lyricism has always been as subtle as a brick to the face, but the blatant lecturing and talking really weighs down some solid instrumentals with cringey declarations and virtue signaling. I don't disagree with what he's saying, but some of the diatribe just feels awkward in the way it's phrased and arranged in the song, an issue that's only grown worse on the band's later releases. Couple that with a lack of dynamic contrast in the LP's closing half and some repetitive guitar work and it feels more crash landing than smooth conclusion. I once heard somebody on Stereogum deride a later IDLES single for being 'another song where the guitar player just bends the root note for 4 minutes' and it's hard to look past that issue here with the other problems going on. There are some great tracks here and I mostly enjoyed the listen, just feel that this band needs to get out of its own way sometimes.

All right 3

This alt / indie rock played while I listened

I don’t know, this modern iteration of post-punk really doesn’t do much for me. Appreciate it and there were definitely a few highlights here, but I haven’t really found a band that really does it for me - I’m not sure that a lot of it is offering up something new…I might just throw on a Jesus Lizard record instead, you know what I mean?

I can see the band's objection to being boxed into punk (or post-punk and hardcore for that matter) As the music is more genre-stretxhing than that. Vocals are mostly pretty locked into the Brit-punk model, which I'm not a superman of. This was good but one of those bands with a super-seriois and uniformly dour outlook.

Always found idles just a bit angry fro me, but did enjoy listening to this, good example of modern punk music.

I get why people like this but it's not for me. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 3/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

Not hard to see the appeal of the direct (and surly-moody) attack it's an encouraging sign young people are still making and listening to this kind of music. But one honestly prefers Parquet Courts and Fontaines DC.

Enjoyed it.

Was absolutely NOT vibing with this today. Never commits to a single sound or genre enough to feel like its worth my time. Came away with lots of thoughts, but the prevailing one is "GRATING"

Sounds like it should be about 30 years older than it is. That's niche.

Punk for idiots who don't know what punk is. Truly awful. Favorite songs: Television Least favorite songs: June, I'm Scum, Colossus, Love Song 1/5