Hope Is Important is the debut studio album by Scottish rock band Idlewild, released 26 October 1998 through Food Records.

Hope Is Important received generally favourable reviews from music critics, some of whom praised the songwriting and Idlewild's energy.

Roddy Woomble lived in Greenville, South Carolina, USA, between the ages of 13 and 15, where his music taste assimilated various punk and alternative rock albums.

[1][2] In late 1995, Idlewild formed in Edinburgh, with its initial line-up consisting of Woomble on vocals, Rod Jones on guitar, Phil Scanlon on bass, and Colin Newton on drums.

[3] After a year of touring, the band released their debut single, "Queen of the Troubled Teens", in March 1997 through local label Human Condition.

[4] As "Queen of the Troubled Teens" received attention from media outlets, the band signed with Fierce Panda Records.

[6][7] Publicity from their live performances, which included tours with Midget and the Warm Jets, resulted in the band signing with Food Records.

[14] In 2008, Woomble viewed it as an "incomplete album" due to its sound of an artist that is "split between their past and future and with barely any studio experience to document it properly".

[6] The album opens with the hardcore punk song "You've Lost Your Way", an earlier version of which was sung by Jones.

[6][15] Woomble said it was a fair representation of the band's live performances from the time period due to its abrasive and upbeat sound.

[6][15] The song talks about the times the band used to visit the club The Egg during the Britpop era, a period that Woomble disliked.

[16] Woomble said the band were concerned "Everyone Says You're So Fragile" would get them shoehorned into the UK pop-punk scene, with the likes of Midget, Snug, and Symposium, despite the song being considered a throwaway.

[6] "Close the Door", another lo-fi song, features the lyric "barbecue lungs", which was a reference to the amount of cigarettes the band were smoking.

[35] NME's Jim Wirth wrote that the album had a "proper pop sensibility" that was "alive with imaginative twists and the sort of impenetrable lyrics that made early Manics singles so special".

[36] In a review for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau wrote that the band were "sometimes lyrical, sometimes heavy, mostly headlong, less confused than the people they write to and about".

[38] The staff at Tiny Mix Tapes said the album is "one of those records that just grabs you", with the band able to "truly transcend their inspirations and create music which sounds truly original".

[17] Ink 19 writer David Lee Beowülf saw it as "schizophrenic", but also "pretty darn hard and punk", which Christina Apeles of Consumable Online agreed with.

[39][40] AllMusic reviewer MacKenzie Wilson said the album "exudes the fiery nature of four young guys yearning to make their own way in modern rock despite the popularity of the three-chord riff".

[48] Hope Is Important was included in a list of writers' favourite Scottish albums by The Herald, where journalist Martin Williams described it as "a startling explosion of singalong hooks, soft-loud dynamics and crashing guitars".