It’s always baffled me that Idlewild are not huge in the U.S. when other U.K. imports such as Snow Patrol and Coldplay have blown up here. I’m not saying that I dislike Snow Patrol and Coldplay, quite the contrary, but I believe Idlewild deserve the same success and recognition. Perhaps Roddy Woomble’s voice is just too Scottish for American listeners, but I really can’t think of a valid reason. Now having released their fifth album, Make Another World, earlier this year, Idlewild are as strong as ever. While their songs range from wall of sound rockers to acoustic balladry, Idlewild never seem out of their element. I first heard of them in 2001 when the local college radio station that I would eventually work for began playing “Little Discourage” from their second album 100 Broken Windows. I must admit that I was a little annoyed be the repetitive nature of that song at first. I eventually grew to like it but I more or less forgot about the band until 2003, while working at KXUL, I heard “A Modern Way of Letting Go” and “You Held the World In Your Arms,” both from their third album The Remote Part. I was very impressed by these two songs and eventually got the album and I loved every track. Shortly thereafter I discovered a cool thing about U.K. bands: they put out singles with lots of non-album b-sides. When I realized that there were several Idlewild tracks that I had yet to hear, I scoured eBay and eventually collected all the CD singles that were released from The Remote Part. Most Idlewild singles have two b-sides and they release two CDs per single. This makes between 12 and 16 non-album tracks. Another thing that baffles me is that Idlewild’s b-sides are almost always as good as their albums. I can imagine it would be difficult to narrow it down to 10 or 12 songs to compile an album. Today’s song comes from CD1 of the “American English” single. It can still be found on eBay and some used copies are available on Amazon. This is definitely my favorite song of theirs that didn’t make an album and probably one my overall favorites from their entire catalog.Idlewild - "Poor Thing"
Idlewild are excellent, but all their music is just so dang sad. It's all autumn, and Scottish hills, and big brick buildings, and coats and beards, and someone crying at a train station, or an airport, or a funeral. It's enough to make a grown man cry.
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