IDLES’ third album Ultra Mono saw the Bristol punks double down on their right-on, shouty polemic to verge of self-parody. 2021 follow-up Crawler, however eschewed the political for the personal. Using a starting metaphor of a near fatal car accident — portrayed in the taillight-lit horror show of opener “MTT 420 RR” — Crawler examines frontman Joe Talbot’s history of drug and alcohol addiction and his eventual road to recovery with brutal frankness. Given the subject matter it makes for an uncomfortable, even grim, listen at times — “The Wheel” opens with the stark image of the singer on his knees begging his alcoholic mother to quit drinking while “Wizz” is a thirty second burst of ear-splitting grindcore over which Talbot barks out text messages from his ex-drug dealer — but the band responds with acres more depth and a sonic richness than they’d displayed on record before. “The Beachland Ballroom” is the unlikely sound of the band trying their hand at girl group soul (albeit in a clanking death march that makes The Jesus and Mary Chain come across like The Archies) while “Progress,” inspired by cutting edge producers Arca and SOPHIE, transports them to the realm of experimental electronica.