Idlewild, Scotland’s finest purveyors of ragged, poetic rock are back with Interview Music, their eighth studio album to date. It’s just shy of 25 years since the band released their first recording, 1997’s Captain, an angular and frenetic debut that launched them on to the scene. Over time and across the records that followed their sound matured and mellowed, members came and went, and side projects sprang up and were sidelined as the band’s popularity and prominence shifted. It’s been nearly five years since they released the hugely well received Everything Ever Written, a record that reawakened the band’s fire and fervour following a near four year hiatus. Can Interview Music continue to keep the dream alive for the Scottish indie heroes?

Album opener ‘Dream Variations’ is a cracking bit of pop rock with its soaring harmonies and fuzzy guitar lines backed by a lofty piano melody. Despite its sparkling start, though, its driving groove gives way to a douchey, downtempo lounge rock outro with Roddy Woomble crooning wistfully “dreams, why do they have to be so cruel?” It’s a bit Brent does Bowie and an odd end to song that begins so promisingly.

‘There’s A Place For Everything’ is a very tempting slice of Radio 2 friendly indie pie, replete with hooky female backing vocals and a semi-rousing chorus featuring the wonderfully oblique line, “A stable full of houses, a fully automatic washing machine”. A pop at materialism or hat tip to Mark Knopfler? Hard to say, but we like it.

The consumerism theme crops up again on the album’s title track, with Woomble warning, “Consumers don’t come too close to the shore”. The track starts out in a fairly Death Cab-esque vein before veering off into a piano-led wig out that reminds us of The Who. 

‘All These Words’ channels the triumphant optimism that ran throughout The Remote Part but its chorus refrain just falls for short of the requisite ear-worminess required to make it a guaranteed hit, and the result is fairly underwhelming.

‘You Wear It Second Hand’ slows the pace to a bit of a plod and sees Woomble reminiscing and philosophising about nostalgia itself, “It’s too bad, there’s nothing permanent from the past.” Dreaming and harkening back crop up a lot in his words on Interview...which lends the whole thing a sense of looking backwards; of yearning for things lost or forgotten.

‘Same Things Twice’ finally gets us back to vintage Idlewild. Woomble’s rasping vocal yelps over a wall of driven power chords, “rip it up, and stop doing the same things twice.” It’s a rousing racket of guitars and cryptic lyrics. Lovely stuff.

Some atmospherics recorded at what sounds like a bustling train station lead into ‘I Almost Didn’t Notice’ which bounces along neatly sounding not unlike early Del Amitri, but again this is a track which without intent listening focus simply drifts by.

If you nodded off slightly during the former, ‘Miracles’ leaps out the speakers at you, providing two-minutes of pleasing honky tonk guitar pop. By the time it’s slapped you out of your stupor it’s gone and given way to the playful, bluesy Brit pop of ‘Mount Analogue’. With a trumpet line playing behind him, Woomble once again aims his gentle ire at commercialism: “You don’t have to advertise everything to me in the third person.” Delivered as more of a polite suggestion than an order, it’s fair to say the hot rage of their youth has cooled a little with age.

‘Forever New’ is schmaltzy and a little try hard in its romantic earnestness, “Some of us try but you can’t escape the feeling of love”.  It’s squarely MOR and there really doesn’t feel like the band are discovering much new ground here at all.

‘Bad Logic’ is another short and punchy number that takes on the themes of reincarnation and old memories: “The past is not dead it’s just living within us”, cries Woomble over distorted guitars. Reflection seems to be the recurring lyrical motif throughout much of the album, and we dip into it again on ‘Familiar To Ignore’. Beginning with a sparse piano line and ponderous musings (“All that there is to decide to define is the moment we’re in”) it then launches full pelt into a bit of good ol’ foot stomping rock ‘n’ roll.

On album closer,  ‘Lake Martinez’, Woomble’s vocal is left to hover - this time without the rock band backing - high above a landscape of gently undulating synths and strings. In truth it’s a bit of an oddity. Had it been recorded in a more folksy manner (acoustic guitars, fiddles, organ etc) it might have had a homey warmth to it. However, this more synthetic, sweeping instrumentation gives this a slight whiff of Enya about it. A peculiar ending to what is a likeable but predominantly unremarkable album.

Interview Music is not going to amplify fans’ long held passion for Idlewild, nor is it going to win them a new legion of listeners. While they’ve certainly tried to be more adventurous in blending styles and genres on the album - even within individual tracks - the overall outcome is a disconnected pathwork of ideas and sketches, rather than a cohesive vision. There are moments of great writing and Dave Eringa’s production gives them a sleek and nuanced sound, but for all the experimentation and exploration, all too often it feels like they’ve landed back in safe territory.

Interview Music is released on 5 April 2019 via Empty Words.