Tonight, in front of a sweaty and devoted Academy, that elusive crossover point in their career lies still just out of reach – and yet it shouldn’t be.
 | | Idlewild (pic: Andy Stubbs) |
It’s a great live show, full of energy and fire. The mix is fantastic. But it’s the material that lets things down. It’s not that the songs aren’t there – excellent new single Love Steals Us From Loneliness kicks things off, along with A Modern Way Of Letting Go. Sadly however, after this promising start it all gets a little too, well, comfortable. With 2002’s The Remote Part, it looked as if Idlewild were well on the way, biting and raw and hungry for our attention. A few years on and things have clearly changed with Warnings/Promises. Aside from the set opener and forthcoming offering I Understand It, the Idlewild of old have returned, obscured and suffocating in a deluge of too much Smiths and early REM. Doubtless we’ll see them again in 2008. Let’s hope that by then, they’ve got their fire back. | 
