Interpol: Our Love to Admire
Interpol makes you care about post-punk indie rock again.
After being so thoroughly disappointed by recent post-punk acts like She Wants Revenge, who are at once monstrously over hyped and under talented, it’s refreshing to see a band like Interpol come back with a new album that shows the posers how it’s done. On their new album, “Our Love to Admire”, the NY foursome prove that there is hope for the genre yet, with excellent, poetic lyrical compositions and deliberate, hypnotic rhythms that have the cold sexuality of a heroin laced mechanical bull ride.
For some reason, Interpol has long been associated with bands like the Strokes and the White Stripes, as part of the “Garage Revival” of the early 2000’s. I’ve always thought this to be rather odd, as their sound is as far removed from the stripped-down arrangements of garage as they can be. The obvious comparisons to Joy Division have always been terribly much more accurate. I think that now that they have incorporated keyboards and synthesizers into the songwriting process, the potential is there for Interpol to reach the bar set by Radiohead for moody, fully arranged (but not overproduced) experimental rock music.
I’m just going to come right out and say it: Bassist Carlos D. looks an awful lot like Corey Feldman.
“Our Love To Admire” isn’t as radio-friendly as Interpol’s last album, “Antics”, but it isn’t a step backward either. Interpol proves early in the album with songs like “No I In Threesome” and “The Heinrich Maneuver” that they can write catchy hooks if they want to. And then they stop wanting to. What follows is maybe not the kind of album that you play at the beginning of a party, but one that you play after the party is over, when the guests have gone, you’ve finished cleaning up, and you can close your eyes and listen carefully. “Our Love To Admire” is nighttime music.
On first listen, “Our Love To Admire” may sound simple, with the slow build-ups of simple guitar and expressionless, baritone vocals. The pacing usually takes a bit of time to get going, especially on songs like “The Lighthouse”, that have an oscillating rhythm very unlike most pop songs one might hear. Upon further listening, you will most likely begin to appreciate stylistic choices that have been made, and will find yourself nodding your head instead of gazing at your shoes like you did the first time. This lack of immediacy is probably less the fault of Interpol, and more the result of the fact that there is so little else out there that is similar and good enough to be referenced against in popular music today.
“Our Love To Admire”: A little difficult, a bit too smugly hip for it’s own good, and ultimately well worth the listen anyway.
