Interpol

This week’s band of the week is an old favourite that’s fallen out of favour with most of their fans. After two highly acclaimed albums, their third (and first for Capitol Records) was generally regarded as a disappointment by fans and critics. Their new one arrived with barely any fanfare…and though it isn’t an album that invites fanfare, it does have something going for it. The band of the week is…

INTERPOL!!!

The New York post-punkers who pretty much (along with Franz Ferdinand) were responsible for the big post-punk revival that went down around 2004-2005 will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the biggest, most important bands of the aughts. Turn On The Bright Lights was so unlike anything else (except for Joy Division) when it came out that most people didn’t even how to react to it. It was cool. It was dark. I remember being 13 and feeling like I could and couldn’t listen to it because the hooks were good but I hated the vocals. Now this sounds stupid to me – what’s wrong with the vocals? For some reason when Antics came along, the vocals were totally alright, though they had barely changed. Admittedly, the entire package was a lot easier to swallow this time around, and I still think Antics is far superior to TOTBL.

In 2006, everyone was shitting themselves waiting for Our Love To Admire. I remember my philosophy teacher, who was like in his 40s, married with kids, telling me to check out the new song, “The Heinrich Maneuver”. And it was a cool song, but the rest of the album was meandering. When they played live at V-Fest ’07, I wasn’t even excited to see this band I used to love, and when they did perform, the OLTA songs bogged down the set.

Their recent self-titled album came out and most people I know either didn’t care about it or still don’t even know it exists. Reviews were mixed, and the most important review – Pitchfork’s of course – slammed the thing big time.

The first time I listened to it, I also thought it was pretty lame. It sounded soulless, boring, totally lacking the vitality that made Antics so thrilling to listen to. The lyrics also didn’t really connect. There’s no, “We spies/We slowhands/Put the weights all around yourself” or “If time is a vessel then learning to love may be my way back to you“. But I find myself coming back to it, drawn in by the dark void that the album is. And there’s something there, something cool, and desolate. There’s something thrilling about looking into the void…

It is a soulless album, but it’s a substantial emptiness. You have to give it some time and patience, but there’s definitely something to it. And it doesn’t hurt that the arrangements are still as sharp and creative as ever, even if the rhythm section doesn’t pack the punch of the old days.

The last two songs are the highlights, almost as if Interpol wants to reward the listener for sticking around this long through all the gloom. Actually, the first couple lines of “All The Ways” are probably the best on the album, and when you first hear them, it’s like waking up from a dream of the underworld only to find the grim reaper at the foot of your bed bemoaning a lost love.

“Tell me you’re mine

Baby, tell me you’re mine to break the ice

Does he make you smile?

Does he fully embrace the way?

Does he mean to you to the fight that you like?

Who is this guy?”

And then there’s those great, beautiful, almost Beatle-esque changes later in the song during the sort-of-chorus. Oooooh, it’s cool.

“The Undoing” also has some strangely-poppy changes and melodies that only make the song creepier. I wish it was Latin and not Spanish he starts singing in later in the song, but it’s still really creepy, with Banks’ vocals are all over the soundscape, sometimes muffled, sometimes clear. It’s like he’s losing his identity and fading into black as the album comes to a close…

http://www.myspace.com/interpol