This September, Idles followed up their acclaimed 2018 record Joy As An Act Of Resistance with their raucous LP Ultra Mono. Continuing to maintain their lively energy and their love for animated videos, Idles share their playful visual alongside the recent track “Kill Them With Kindness.”
Animated in a whimsical fashion, the visual shows vocalist Joe Talbot and his fellow band mates using kindness to their deathly advantage. The black-and-white video was animated by Pip Williamson and directed by James Carbutt, who said the clip’s pub setting is based on a real bar: “The dingy pub setting in the film is based on the Working Men’s Clubs of my hometown, Barnsley. It was nice to imagine IDLES bursting in and spreading a message of love. During our research we discovered that no two Wetherspoons carpets are the same, they are all unique like snowflakes, so yeah making this film was a wild ride.”
Speaking to Uproxx in an interview about the album, Talbot said that stomping around on stage, as seen in the “Kill Them With Kindness” video, is actually an act of tenderness:
“If you look at the most tender moments in your life when you’ve been the most sincere and loving to someone, they’re the most violent, potent, and memorable moments. People confuse tenderness with softness. Tenderness can be something that cuts through everything else like an explosion. Stamping my feet comes from love and empathy as much as it does anger and shame. I’m definitely violent on stage but that comes from all sorts of emotions. Sadness, loss, love, lust. Sometimes I’m just hungry.”
Watch Idles’ “Kill Them With Kindness” video above.
Ultra Mono is out now via Partisan. Get it here.