
Why IDLES pressed Joe Talbot’s mother’s ashes into 100 copies of ‘Brutalism’
The limited 2017 pressing was a memorial to the person Joe Talbot said shaped IDLES’ debut, extending an album written through grief into its physical form.
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A Dork four-star record. 'Grounds' arrives with a monstrous, lurching beat and burbling laser sounds that cut against airstrike guitars, the track built on the sound of collective strength. Joe Talbot's voice rides the brutality with a message of unification, the lyrics insisting on solidarity over individual complaint. "Do you hear that thunder? That's the sound of strength in numbers" becomes the song's rallying cry, a refusal to be silenced or divided. The track explores class struggle and racist attitudes, themes that thread through the album. Talbot moves between defiance and clarity, rejecting performative outrage in favour of action and meaning. The song's power lies in its contradiction: it is aggressive and urgent, yet the message is one of love and collective resistance. 'Grounds' is a statement of intent, the lead single from an album that channels fury into something more durable than rage alone.
"Grounds" is a single by Idles, from the album Ultra Mono, released 24th September 2020. The track is 3:09 long. It's filed under Alternative. Full lyrics are available below. Dork has published 20 articles about Idles.
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