“Danny Nedelko” by Idles

"Danny Nedelko" is Idles' love letter to a friend and a two-fingered salute to everyone who'd send him home. The second single from Joy as an Act of Resistance., the British band's second album, arrived in June 2018 and is named for Danny Nedelko, a Ukrainian immigrant, close pal of the band and singer of Heavy Lungs.

It goes after nationalism hard, then turns the whole thing into a party for multiculturalism, a roll call of immigrants running from Freddie Mercury down to the neighborhood butcher. Stereogum's Chris DeVille heard post-punk agitprop that ends up as a football-terrace chant, and Born Music put it alongside METZ, Savages and Protomartyr, noting that Joe Talbot's growls, the feedback and the jagged riffs are all present and correct, only aimed at lifting people up this time.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.