Scottish alternative rock stalwarts Idlewild have followed up the announcement of their first album in six years with the release of It’s Not The First Time, the second single from their forthcoming self-titled record, due 3rd October via V2 Records. The new track — premiered today following the warmly received Stay Out Of Place — finds the band in quintessentially reflective form, marrying widescreen melodic textures with frontman Roddy Woomble’s philosophical lyricism. Echoes of their 2002 landmark The Remote Part abound, with emotionally resonant guitars and sweeping arrangements underscoring the song’s meditative heart.
Idlewild
Speaking on the meaning behind the track, Woomble offered a candid reflection on life on the road and the broader themes of memory, resilience, and presence: “Memory is a broken net, a leaky barrel. You exist in a series of nows, and there is an art to the obvious – all great truths are obvious truths… For every wet and cold Tuesday night in Chemnitz playing to a half-empty room, there’s a sold-out Barrowlands show. Amidst it all, you have to appreciate the moment for whatever it is showing you. And that’s the idea the song is trying to get across.”
Idlewild, the band’s tenth studio album, was recorded throughout 2024 at Post Electric Studios in Edinburgh and the Isle of Iona Library in the Hebrides. It was produced and mixed by longtime guitarist Rod Jones alongside the band. The result is a record that reaches back across the group’s expansive sonic history while feeling strikingly current.
Since forming in Edinburgh in 1995, Idlewild have morphed from brash teenage punk outsiders to one of the most celebrated alternative rock bands of their generation. Albums like Hope Is Important, 100 Broken Windows, and The Remote Part captured the zeitgeist of British guitar music in the early 2000s, with the latter debuting at #3 in the UK Album Charts behind Oasis and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
After a hiatus in 2010, the band returned with an invigorated sound, exploring folk, indie, and experimental textures over successive releases, culminating in 2019’s genre-blurring Interview Music. Woomble describes the new album as a kind of sonic reunion of the band’s many eras: “For the first time, we were referencing ourselves… not in a nostalgic way, but in a creative one. We realised we had a sound — and these songs should celebrate that. After it was all done, it felt fitting to simply call it Idlewild.”
The band are set to hit the road again with a string of festival appearances and UK headline tour dates, many of which are already sold out.
Upcoming UK Tour Dates:
JULY
27th – Deer Shed Festival, Thirsk
SEPTEMBER
13th – Black Isle Calling, Inverness
OCTOBER
10th – Boilershop, Newcastle
11th – Project House, Leeds
12th – Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton
14th – The Junction, Cambridge
15th – O2 Academy, Bristol
17th – KOKO, London
18th – New Century Hall, Manchester
DECEMBER
5th – Beach Ballroom, Aberdeen
6th – LiveHouse, Dundee
7th – Barrowland, Glasgow
JANUARY 2026
2nd–5th – Rockaway Beach, Bognor Regis
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