Indie decade

(Morning Star, Friday 12 October 2007)

ALBUM: Idlewild - Scottish Fiction: Best of 1997-2007
(Parlophone)

INDIE folkster Roddy Woomble's Celtic indie songsters Idlewild have been chart-bothering for 10 years.

Idlewild's original incarnation as youthful noiseniks is fully represented here, with the unsurpassable When I Argue I See Shapes and These Wooden Ideas making an appearance, but, as with all best-of collections, it is astonishing to see the path that they have followed, through the REM-style tuneful mediocrity of American English, the more traditional stylings of Live in a Hiding Place and the 1980s rock sound of No Promises.

Enthralling and inspiring when at their best, this band will last at least another decade and, going by their current record, they'll yield some corkers.