Ideals were originally called It’s a Trap, which is a great name for Star Wars or Family Guy fan boys, but for everyone else leaves them wondering what the band might be referring to. As Ideals they’ve released a brand new seven song EP entitledLet Your Anger Leave You that is guitar centric, much more melodic and has a heavier sound than their previous offering. When I heard their debut single, “Lungs” in 2010 and I thought they could be the next Killers, or the British version thereof, but they’ve gone in a different direction and created a sound similar to that of The National. It’s dark, brooding and melodramatic.
I had a hard time, at first, finding a way to describe their sound and their evolution from bands like Stereophonics or the aforementioned Killers that have that sound that seems so prevalent in today’s mainstream rock culture. Then my girlfriend hit the nail on the head. This band from Ipswitch, England has transformed from a rocking modern band into ‘80’s band The Church. It’s a risky move changing genres and styles midstream, but Ideals is banking on their small but loyal fan base to get on board.
Their new EP, much like The Church, has a shoegazer, spacey kind of feeling to it with guitar licks that are central to the evolution of this band. In fact, if you listen to the song, “Do You Feel Like Home” it almost sounds like an alternative version of The Church’s major hit, “Under The Milky Way Tonight.” They have almost fallen into this distinction, perhaps unwittingly, but it’s there. It is hard to trace the evolutionary aspects of a relatively new band and frankly it’s almost irresponsible to judge them by their previous efforts. As a stand-alone piece this EP is very much like The National, Echo and the Bunnymen and Depeche Mode.
I, however, am fascinated about how they came to this point. Why did they change their style? The crew remains the same, but the sound is dramatically different. Maybe they’ve just found their stride, maybe this is the band they were destined to be. A part of me wonders, though, if it doesn’t have to do with trying to appeal to a UK audience whose music style is becoming more and more divergent than the United States’ and has been leaning that way for the past 25 years. Sure there have always been bands that were hits in the UK and not the US, but most of the time the styles meet somewhere in the middle (Oasis, Blur, The Smiths).
These days not much can be found in common and the UK is carving out its niche even with American bands like The National that have found marginal success here and much love and desired affection across the pond. The reason many of us have such a hard time figuring out bands like Ideals when they first make the leap to gain more of a worldwide audience is that our relationship to music is so much different. That’s why other U.K. bands like Snow Patrol have merely moderate success here. We’ll get it right eventually and again we’ll meet in the middle. I like Ideals, but more than that I’m curious about them. I wonder where they go from here? What’s their next move? And if you’re thinking about a band, in such a way, then maybe the desired effect is simply to make you think of them.
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