2009–2015: Formation, Welcome and Meat/Meta EPs Welsh frontman
Joe Talbot was born in
Newport and spent his late teenage years in
Devon. Talbot and bassist Adam Devonshire met in
sixth form college in
Exeter. Talbot and Devonshire then both moved to Bristol where they studied at the
St Matthias Campus of the
University of the West of England and decided to start a band. According to Talbot, "It took us a long time to get productive because we didn't know what the fuck we were doing at all, we were fucking terrible for a long time." Talbot and Devonshire went on to open the Bat-Cave Night Club in
Bristol. Guitarist Mark Bowen moved from
Belfast to study in Bristol and met Talbot while on the DJ circuit. By 2014 the band comprised Talbot, Devonshire, guitarists Mark Bowen and Andy Stewart, and drummer Jon Beavis. They released a second EP,
Meat, which saw them embrace a much harder-edged direction from their early work, and
Meta, an EP of remixes, in 2015, and then started writing songs for their debut album. and "Divide & Conquer", the band released their first album,
Brutalism, in March 2017 to critical acclaim.
DIY gave it 4 stars, calling it "An exhilarating escape along frenzied rhythms and powerhouse rhythms with a ferocious commentary for guidance...as vital as it is volatile."
The Line of Best Fit website gave it 9/10, calling Idles "one of the most exciting British bands right now". It received an 8/10 from
PopMatters, with Ian King calling it "bracing, caustic, and relentless".
Uncut gave it a similarly positive review, calling it "A rare rock record with the rage, urgency, wit and shattering of complacency usually found in grime". Talbot's mother died after a long illness while the band was working on the album and is pictured on the cover, along with a sculpture by Talbot and his father. as well as supporting the
Foo Fighters for the
O2 Arena's 10th Birthday.
2018–2019: Joy as an Act of Resistance 2019 After several festival appearances throughout Europe, they began working on their second album,
Joy as an Act of Resistance, which was released on 31 August 2018. Accompanying the release of
Joy, the group created an exhibition in collaboration with HM Electric Gallery in London, taking place 30 and 31 August 2018. In 2019, the band was nominated for
Best Breakthrough Act at the
2019 Brit Awards and later won the
2019 Kerrang! Award for Best British Breakthrough Act. That same year,
Joy as an Act of Resistance was shortlisted for the 2019 Hyundai
Mercury Prize. The band performed "
Never Fight a Man with a Perm" at the ceremony on 19 September. In December, they played various shows across the UK, including a packed concert of 10,000 at London's
Alexandra Palace.
2020–2021: Ultra Mono During the latter stages of their
Joy as an Act of Resistance tour in December 2019, Idles performed three new songs which were confirmed to be from their then-unannounced third album, which Talbot confirmed was finished and being mixed in an interview with
Zane Lowe that same month. Following the promotional single "Mr. Motivator" in May 2020, Talbot announced their third album,
Ultra Mono, in June, on
Steve Lamacq's
Radio 6 show. The album was supported by a further four singles; "Grounds", "A Hymn", "Model Village" and "War" in June, July, August and September 2020, respectively. The record also features guest appearances from
Jehnny Beth,
Warren Ellis,
David Yow and
Jamie Cullum.
Ultra Mono was released through Partisan Records on 25 September 2020 to predominantly positive reviews, with
Louder Than War awarding it a 10 out of 10 and describing it as "the album of their career". The band followed the release of the album with a remix of "Model Village", featuring
Slowthai. In 2021 the band received the Best Punk Record award for the album at the
American Association of Independent Music’s (A2IM)
Libera Awards. Also in 2021, the band released three covers:
Sharon Van Etten's "Peace Signs" (for Van Etten's commemorative
Epic Ten album),
Gang of Four's "
Damaged Goods" (for the
Andy Gill tribute album
The Problem Of Leisure) and
Metallica's "
The God That Failed" (for the charity tribute album
The Metallica Blacklist).
2021–2023: Crawler On 28 September 2021, shortly over a year after the release of
Ultra Mono, the band released the single "The Beachland Ballroom". Coinciding with the announcement the band announced the release of their fourth studio album,
Crawler, to be released later in the autumn. Prior to the album's release, the second single, "Car Crash", was released. The song was written about Talbot's real-life car accident.
Crawler was released on 12 November 2021 through Partisan Records, and it was met with critical acclaim. Matt Mitchell, writing for
Paste, gave the album an 8.8 out of 10 saying that
Crawler "is magnetic storytelling tempered with newfound patience". Damien Morris, of
The Observer, called
Crawler a "thrilling, glass-gargling introspection", giving the album a full five out of five stars. Stuart Berman of
Pitchfork gave
Crawler a 7 out 10, the highest rating the band has received from the website. Berman said that "the Bristol band’s fourth album plays like the dark origin story for how Idles became the preeminent life coaches of modern post-punk." After being unable to tour for
Ultra Mono due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, the two albums were promoted in a worldwide tour from late 2021 to late 2022. During the tour, the band released two music videos from
Crawler. The first, "When the Lights Come On", premiered on 13 December 2021 with direction from the company, Holding Hands with Horses. On 8 February 2022, the music video for "Crawl!" was released. The video was a claymation video directed by LOOSE and Edie Lawrence. In April 2022, the band performed at
Coachella Music and Arts Festival, with
Desert Sun describing their performance as "rambunctious" and "chaotic".
2023–2025: Tangk and scoring Caught Stealing On 18 October 2023 the band released the single "
Dancer", featuring backing vocals by
James Murphy and
Nancy Whang from
LCD Soundsystem. They also announced their fifth album
Tangk, which was released on 16 February 2024 and co-produced by the team of Kenny Beats,
Nigel Godrich and guitarist Mark Bowen. "Dancer" was later named by
NME as the 49th best song of 2023. On 6 December 2023, the band released the follow-up single "Grace", and later released "Gift Horse" on 14 January 2024. On February 14, the band released a music video for "Grace" that used footage from
Coldplay's video for "
Yellow". Using
deep fake technology,
Chris Martin is made to appear as though he is singing "Grace" rather than "Yellow". The idea for the video reportedly came to Talbot in a dream, and was done with not only Martin's approval but his cooperation – filming himself singing the song in order to train the
AI to make it appear more realistic. On 17 April 2024, the band released a music video for "Pop Pop Pop" while on a worldwide tour that started in February 2024. The music video was shot on location in
Iceland. On Friday 28 June 2024 Idles played at
Glastonbury where they were the final act performing on the 'Other Stage'. At one point during the performance they were joined on stage by American rapper
Danny Brown. The band toured the album extensively throughout 2024 and 2025, culminating in two hometown shows at
Queen Square, Bristol on August 1 and August 2, 2025. During this time, the band recorded the
film score for
Darren Aronofsky's 2025 feature film,
Caught Stealing, with an accompanying soundtrack album scheduled for release on August 29, 2025. Alongside the score, the band recorded four new songs for the soundtrack. Reflecting on the experience, Joe Talbot noted: "This has been a huge opportunity for us that seemingly came about after a chance meeting backstage at
Fallon when we both happened to be guests on the same day. But in hindsight, I realise that Darren is one of my favourite directors and his films have in some ways made me who I am as an artist. This lucid dream has been a lifetime in the making and one that I will live over and over with a huge sense of humility and joy." In September 2025, it was announced that the band would feature as guest collaborators on the
Gorillaz album
The Mountain, on the song "The God of Lying." Bowen also worked as a co-producer and co-writer of
Florence and the Machine's sixth studio album
Everybody Scream, which was released on 31 October 2025. ==Musical style==