IDLES Lay Claim to the Dance Floor on Lead Single From New Album ‘TANGK’

IDLES posing
Hard-nosed UK post-punks IDLES shred the dance floor on the first single from a forthcoming full length | Courtesy of the artist

Bristol’s IDLES have always been a band to smile with a mouthful of blood, but on their newly announced fifth album TANGK (Feb. 16, 2024, Partisan Records), previewed via lead single and video “DANCER” this week, the hard-nosed English rockers don’t just smile—they dance, too.

TANGK—“pronounced ‘tank’ with a whiff of the ‘g’ and an onomatopoeic reference to the lashing way the band imagined the guitars sounding that has grown into a sort of sigil for living in love,” according to a press release—finds IDLES reuniting with Kenny Beats (Denzel Curry, Vince Staples, Benee), who co-produced their Grammy-nominated 2021 album CRAWLER alongside the band’s own Mark Bowen. This time out, IDLES also enlisted none other than Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, The Smile, Beck), who helped send their gleefully blunt post-punk sound in a new direction. As heard on “DANCER,” TANGK retains the band’s swaggering brawn while letting its heart of gold beat louder than ever.

Released Wednesday alongside a cinematic music video (dir. Jocelyn Anquetil), “DANCER” finds IDLES wholeheartedly embracing dance-punk, down to the backing vocals by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and Nancy Whang. Tense percussion and thrumming guitar and bass lend the instrumental an exhilarating energy, while frontman Joe Talbot playfully evokes dance’s physical communion via sensory detail and self-deprecating humor (“I’m poised / Like a goddamn ape”). Nowhere is the song’s sentiment more clear than in the improvised chorus: “I give myself to you / As long as you move on the floor.” The video reflects that same idea, as IDLES and various strangers dance their way to absolution.

Talbot said of the track in a statement, “’Dancer’ is the violence that comes from the pounding heart of the dancefloor and rushes through your body and gives you life from music, from love and from you.” 

IDLES will close out 2023 with a pair of shows in Asia before returning for a European run in early 2024. You’ll find their complete tour itinerary down below, along with the details of TANGK, and ticket info here.

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TANGK Tracklist:

1. IDEA 01

2. Gift Horse

3. POP POP POP

4. Roy

5. A Gospel

6. Dancer

7. Grace

8. Hall & Oates

9. Jungle

10. Gratitude

11. Monolith

IDLES Tour Dates:

Dec 1st 2023 – Hong Kong, CN @ Clockenflap

Dec 2nd, 2023  – Bangkok, TH @ Maho Rasop Festival

Feb 29th, 2024 – Porto, PT @ Super Bock Arena

March 1st, 2024 – Madrid, ES @ Wizinik

March 2nd, 2024 – Barcelona, ES @ Sant Jordi Club

March 5th, 2024 – Milan, IT @ Alcatraz

March 7th, 2024 – Paris, FR @ Zenith

March 8th, 2024 – Netherlands / Amsterdam, NL @ AFAS

March 9th, 2024 – Antwerp, BE @ Lotto Arena

March 11th, 2024 – Prague, CZ @ SaSaZu

March 12th, 2024 – Luxembourg, LU @ Rockhal

March 14th, 2024 – Zurich, CH @ Halle 622

March 15th, 2024 – Berlin, DE @ Max-Schmeling-Halle

March 16th, 2024 – Hamburg, DE @ Sporthalle

March 18th, 2024 – Stockholm, SE @ Munchen Brewery

March 19th, 2024 – Copenhagen, DK @ KB Hallen

March 21st, 2024 – Cologne, DE @ Palladium

March 22nd, 2024 – München, DE @ Zenith

March 23rd, 2024 – Frankfurt, DE @ Jahrhunderthalle

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