Idle Bloom – Flood the Dial (LP)

Idle Bloom – Flood the Dial (LP)

URL: https://www.idlebloomband.com/

Premier indie rockers Idle Bloom have been lighting up the American underground from one end of the country to the next for the last year following the release of their critically acclaimed LP Little Deaths. Little Deaths introduced an international audience to their stunning authentic grooves and enigmatic lyrics, but in their latest album Flood the Dial, the Nashville-based quartet pull out all the stops and unleash a full throttled juggernaut that listeners won’t soon forget. Guitarist Olivia Scibelli is in top form alongside her costars Gavin Schriver, Katie Banyay and Weston Sparks, and I would argue that even the most discriminating of music enthusiasts would have a difficult time finding flaw or fault in this band’s most intriguing and thought provoking release to date.

There’s plenty of punk rock adrenaline to behold in Flood the Dial, but Idle Bloom are careful to avoid the pitfalls of self-righteousness in their lyrics, instead preferring to employ an angular, almost abstract narrative in most of these songs. Tracks like “Wasted Time” and the stylish “Seeping In” have a swing to them, but their restrained design keeps the music from running off the rails and becoming totally inaccessible. Flood the Dial is a little more pop-focused than Little Deaths was, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say that the band is abandoning their DIY street cred. If anything, they’re refining their sound and cultivating the most opulent attributes in their collective skillset, which is (in essence) the polar opposite of selling out.

BANDCAMP: https://idlebloom.bandcamp.com/

While it’s much harder to cherry pick through Flood the Dial in the same way I could another contemporary pop/rock release thanks to the plethora of engaging material to be found in its ten tracks, “Wasted Time” might be my favorite song from the record. It’s one of the more patient ballads on the album, but to call it a slow song seems decidedly limiting and dismissive of the track’s gripping, mammoth tonality. The pulsating beat that comes into full focus about two and a half minutes into the song feels more like a shot of adrenaline straight to the veins than it does a transition in tempo, and when coupled with Scibelli’s haunting vocal it becomes extremely hard not to get lost in the ocean of ethereal harmony that the band is pushing out one note at a time.

Fans of authentic, unfiltered rock n’ roll would be wise to pick up a copy of Flood the Dial this fall, if for no other reason than to see why critics from Los Angeles to London cannot stop talking about Idle Bloom and the incredibly affectionate yet cutting style of music they’ve become so well known for. In the last twelve months they’ve been circling mainstream exposure like a shark preparing to go in for the kill, and I think this could be the record to put them over the top and make them the household name that they’ve always aspired to be. Idle Bloom have proven with Flood the Dial that they not only have what it takes to rule over the indie charts but that their reign of supremacy has just begun.

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/idlebloom/about

Mindy McCall