Interpol
Our Love To Admire

THE REVIEW

Here it is. Finally. The so-called "difficult third album". They did it. There were doubts: all the best post new wave bands have already failed the second test, let alone the third. Signing with a major label. That desire for hits expressed/repressed in the previous "Antics". The use of an à la page producer like Rich Costey (a couple of Muse albums, bad, and the latest Franz Ferdinand, bad, among other things).

But it works, oh it does.

The first surprise comes from the tracklist: the first three tracks are all mid-tempo. Only with "The Heinrich Maneuver", also chosen as the single, do the bpm start to rise. And this is already a point in favor: one might have expected an attempt at captatio benevolentiae, but instead, Interpol go their own way.

I believe that the almost three-year break from the previous studio work did them good. The maturity reached by the NYC quartet is evident first and foremost from the fact that by now Interpol resemble themselves more than something else (Joy Division, The Smiths, Television, depending on the detractors). No, they have their own trademarks: the guitar arpeggios at the beginning of the tracks that set their shape; Paul Banks' voice left alone, occasionally, with very little instrumental support; repeating the same chord more than necessary, without being boring; the codas of the songs that provide new breath, suggesting escape routes that remain inevitably disappointing (the transposition of the pictorial concept of the "unfinished").

To this is added, in this chapter, a use of keyboards that enriches the sound and grants it complexity. Dirtier guitars compared to those in "Antics" (too clean, for my taste). New directions (see the potentially orchestral arrangements of the endings of "Wrecking Ball" and "Lighthouse"). I also like the circularity of the work, a beginning, as said, slow, then Interpol get faster and meaner, again calm at the end of the album.

Favorite song: "Rest My Chemistry", with superb guitars, yet another consecration of the uselessness of the solo in the realm of rock music, and restrained yet effective rhythm section. The only doubts are about the cover, which seems truly horrendous to me compared to the band's very minimal and conceptual style.

Definitely one of those records that will annoy my neighbors the most this coming summer, as well as the neighbors of other Interpol enthusiasts.