Interpol
Our Love To Admire

I was looking forward with some curiosity to the new album by Interpol after having loved "Turn On The Bright Lights" like crazy, which was truly the soundtrack of my 2002, and then being disappointed by the subsequent "Antics," which three years later, I can sincerely define as overall rather unattractive.

In reality, at first impact, "Our Love To Admire" surprises. I was expecting a straightforward album with the usual "Interpol style" sounds, a modern new wave with fast and sharp tracks but faithful to the classic 80s structure masterfully restored by the four guys from NYC. But it's not like that. Firstly, the record sounds different right from the first moment and only partially resembles what has been heard before. In particular, what strikes me is the power and roughness of the guitar sounds that seem to overflow out of the headphones surprisingly, they truly seem like sharp blades (I imagine Kessler's fingers bleeding). The much more evident and refined keyboards enrich every track from the beginning to the end of the album. But it is especially the songwriting that is the novelty because it does not follow the linearity of the first records but seeks, I would add rightly, new and more complex solutions.

The result is that on the first listen, the album is not very accessible, it is introverted, it hides, it lets you sense but does not reveal itself, and a compact and superficial layer of sound hides it all until it gives a general sense of confusion. The album is dark, gloomy, powerful, and direct. It doesn't play, it doesn't laugh, it doesn't make your foot tap, and it doesn't try to be pleasant, but on the contrary, it almost attacks you.

It actually takes five listens for sufficiently trained ears for everything to start making sense. The opening trio is electrifying, three tracks profoundly different from each other in conception but absolutely perfect in execution. Heart in the throat. The beautiful Pioneer To The Falls is a slow, crepuscular ballad introduced by a strange, graceless, metallic, and minimalist arpeggio but slowly grows inexorably and reveals all its heartbreaking beauty in a nearly epic finale, just as heartbreaking is the second track, No I In Threesome, where the pace decidedly increases, and despite a funny start, the tone soon returns to being dark and at times desperate, slipping into a fabulous chorus that makes you want not so much to sing but to scream. Follows the amazing The Scale with its martial and insistent progression providing goosebump moments that I would describe as an "absolute sadness" until a short but intense "backward solo" that closes the perfect circle.

The beautiful single Heinrich Maneuver (fantastic guitars) almost seems to break the spell; it's the only song that refers to the old Interpol, but it's still a great track with a killer and driving force. The fifth track, Mammoth, really kicks ass, with Fogarino hitting hard and the others following him superbly, but it's not just power here, there's awareness, technique, and great maturity.
Pace is The Trick hits with a grandiose chorus that will become an anthem in concerts and monumental guitars. Strange and beautiful, the finale with a sound that starts from afar and then overwhelms everything, seeming to be produced by a didgeridoo, completely out of context. The tension drops in the seventh track, All Fired Up, which starts like a Radiohead song (let's see if you can guess which one) but in its noisy progression seems to lead nowhere. Unlike the previous Mammoth, here the hammering rhythm seems less conscious and doesn't convince in its path.

It's just an episode because in the following Rest My Chemistry, which starts with a suggestive piano full of echo and then kicks in powerful and sweet in rhythm and the crystal-clear guitars, the tone immediately returns to the highest levels, perhaps among the highest ever reached by Interpol. In this track, Banks' voice stands out in a new and indisputable way, finally seeming a bit less shy and interpreting silent moments engagingly and convincingly. The next Who Do You Think is another example of awareness, power, and control, appreciably mixing the electric violence of the arrangement with a fragile undercurrent of melancholy, resulting in a powerful but essentially sweet track.

At this point, comes the unexpected twist... the last two tracks completely change course. Wrecking Bell is a poignant ballad centered around a very brief guitar riff that repeats incessantly and a melody that strikes the right chords. The arrangement seems to lean towards "old west" atmospheres, especially in the long and beautiful orchestral ending. The concluding Lighthouse is even more surprising. The choice of arrangement surprises, with a super-reverberated and unhinged guitar, played like a mandolin, underpinning the beautiful melody sung by Banks, which is the essence of the track but in my view tends to be excessively long at this stage. It also features a grand finale in old west tones where the orchestra fades and classic Sergio Leone-style bells are added... and the record ends, nevertheless leaving a splendid feeling.

The perfect New Wave of the first two albums seems to have been substantially overcome or evolved into something that sounds essentially new. Interpol reawaken, deliver a great blow, and by seeking new paths, return to the levels of their debut.

Two final notes:

1) The booklet is fabulous with images of wild and savage nature created by Seth Smoot, one of the foremost exponents of contemporary photography. Check out the website (www.sethsmoot.com).

2) I have followed the entire Anglo/American new New Wave scene over these years, I have not shared much of the fierce criticism directed at all its exponents, especially for the accusation of all being copycats of Interpol, and I have come to love some bands like Editors and Departure who, in some way and for different reasons, have involved me. But when I listened to this "Our Love To Admire, I immediately realized that Interpol are still 10 steps above everyone else.