The Scottish group celebrate their 30th year as a band with a self titled tenth album.

My first encounter with Idlewild was ‘Little Discourage’ from their third album. It was a more punk based take on alt-rock that was all angular guitars and broken vocals. There was a ramshackle brilliance to their early music and their live shows. It evolved into a more classical rock style on the utterly brilliant and epic fourth album, The Remote Part. It was a pitch to occupy the ground that the likes of U2 and REM held and for a minute you thought they might genuinely crack that stratospheric level. It never quite happened and they were overtaken as Scotland’s premier rockers by Biffy Clyro who had also formed the same year. In recent years the band members have been occupied by a range of different projects. Guitarist Rod Jones has been producing other bands work and acting as a Godfather to a new wave of Scottish talent, including Humour and their brilliant debut Learning Greek.

The new album is as well produced and immaculate sounding as you would expect. There is plenty here for an Idlewild fan to enjoy. It all feels like a solid three stars out of five though without ever really fizzing. There is none of the urgency of their early work, and none of the utter brilliance that made The Remote Part such an essential listen. The start of ‘Make It Happen’ briefly threatens to ignite former glories but it all quickly settles back down again. In the battle of the 30 year old bands both old rivals Biffy Clyro and Northern Irish rockers Ash have produced more vital work in the last few weeks.