Interpol Album: “Our Love to Admire”

"Our love to admire" is my introduction to the music of Interpol. Chiming melodic guitars and a brooding melancholic feel best describes the sound of this CD.

Interpol is a New York based quartet, but you'd be forgiven for thinking they were British. Think an edgier Coldplay or Snow Patrol, or even better, Joy Division.

Opening is the gentle lilting "Pioneer to the falls" with tumbling guitar sounds. More upbeat is the humorous "No 1 in the threesome" which still manages to sound gloomy.

"Scale" is a midtempo charmer, and lead off single "Heinrich maneuver" is a dance rocker a-la Franz Ferdinand. It's a kiss off to an ex.

"Mammoth" is another upbeat number with wonderful chiming guitars. Other upbeat numbers are "All fired up", and "Who do you think".

On the slower side of things, there's the lovely "Pace is the trick", the choppy "Rest my chemistry", the atmospheric "Wrecking ball" (with a name like that, I was expecting a rocker), and the dirge-like ambient epic "Lighthouse" (with percussion kicking in towards the final minute) which to me wouldn't be out of place on a Radiohead CD.

There's a whole lot to admire on this CD.

Well, it isn't Turn on the Bright Lights. And it isn't Antics either. I really can't compare the three. Bright Lights was dark and darker, Antics wasn't as dark but added more blatant obtuseness to the proceedings. This one seems more...straightforward...to me. It just seems more obvious to me.

Track-by-track:

1. Pioneer to the Falls- As usual, a rousing opener that builds and builds and builds.

2. No I in Threesome- Not as cringe-worthy as expected, a peppy love song about hoping to find a new spark in an established relationship. Piano plays a big part in this, though doesn't overpower. May be the song with the biggest Carlos D presence (more solid bass).

3. The Scale- This one comes off as a little bland- first of two tracks that utilize backtracking

4. The Heinrich Maneuver- The first single, I have to say it is really quite good. Catchy and sounds great on the album (in the live recording from their early, shows it doesn't come off as solid). First of two tracks that pull a "Say Hello to the Angels" of cutting out.........and then coming back in again (maybe getting a bit cliched?).

5. Mammoth- Another that I'd heard from live recordings, and, again, it sounds really good on the album. Big, loud guitars, it almost starts out like Not Even Jail, but once the song gets going, it isn't really close to NEJ. Maybe it is cliched, but when the guitars cut out for the deafeningly quiet bridge and the piano shows up again, it is truly a great moment. This is going to be a highlight of their live shows.

6. Pace is the Trick- A nice, quieter song after the ruckus of Mammoth. I can hear touches of Take you on a Cruise in it at times.

7. All Fired Up- Decent track, but it just seems a little disjointed....

8. Rest My Chemistry- I REALLY like this song. It has a very bluesy feel to it that just is a lot of fun to me.

9. Who do you think- Maybe a bit of a clunky intro, but a typical Interpol mid-to-fast tempo rocker with a lot of bounce to it, similar to C'mere.

10. Wrecking ball- A nice penultimate track, this will be a big one live as well. More backtracking on this, and even.....an orchestra?

11. Lighthouse- I guess I'm not seeing this one yet. Takes a while to get going. I haven't grasped this one yet...I'm trying to think of what this one reminds me of...OH! It sounds very much like The Walkmen for a while before coming back to 'Pol at the end.

Some comments-

-Paul sounds great on vocals. I don't know what it is- he just sounds....more true?

-Daniel on lead guitar really works hard on this one. His guitar work is really impressive.

-Sam on drums is spot on as usual.

-Carlos doesn't seem to be as prominent in this. Maybe he's just not coming through to me yet. But it sounds like he's just not as big a part of this album.

This is a pretty good album. I am liking it more and more the more I listen to it. It is certainly an album that you have to just forget all expectations and focus on this album. Forget about the past albums. Just don't even compare them, or even try. Just....don't. I'm not saying that because it pales in comparison to the earlier albums, it is just that if you go in expecting PDA or Obstacle 1, you aren't going to get it. You aren't going to get another Not Even Jail. But that isn't a bad thing. Or, at least, it doesn't have to be.

I have to admit that this year's albums by the wunderkind of the indie music world have been a bit disheartening. Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, Killers- while they are fine albums, they just don't have that FIRE that their earlier albums had. Bloc Party's Silent Alarm has such a solid bass section, not to mention the political edge, that Weekend in the City just doesn't have. Arcade Fire is good, it just has lost a little bit of the spark and playfulness that Funeral has (even if that sounds like an oxymoron). Heck, I've got the latest Editors album already, and while it is fine, it is missing the urgency that Back Room had.

Interpol is NOT like that, however. The soul is there, even if it isn't quite in the same place that everyone would expect it. But it is there!

Thank goodness for that!

Interpol is, hands down, one of the few modern rock bands that has gotten consistenly better with each album.

I am blown away by "Our Love To Admire".

A stunning array of progressive and deep tracks with incredible haunting vocals. I'm truly surprised at the less than 5-star ratings by the fans.

Interpol has delivered a nuclear bomb of an album.

Their best album to date.

Bravo!

Remaining as dark as they wanna be, Interpol tread familiar ground on their third CD. Less bleak that "

" but less propulsive, "Our Love To Admire" successfully negotiates the major label jump without compromising the band's sound. In fact, this may be an even more outlandishly experimental album then before, with the ambient finale "The Lighthouse" being the most sonically ambitious song Interpol has ever laid down.

At the same time, the signs of career are setting in. "No I in Threesome" sounds like the same tired rock on the road with ladies song that Foreigner could have spit out. But the one-two punch of the "Wrecking Ball/The Lighthouse" finale forgives any missteps "Our Love To Admire" may contain, and repeated listening reveals few. As on the first two albums, there is a darkness here that echoes with bass-heavy rhythms and spiky guitars. "Show me the dirt pile and I will pray," snarls Peter Banks as the band swirls around in him. It makes the opening salvo of "Our Love To Admire" a heady reminder that the band that created the excellent "

" still has ambitions of carving their own sound. On songs like "Mammoth," "The Heinrich Maneuver" and "Pioneer To The Falls," Interpol proves that they have what it takes.

Having been a big fan of the first two albums, and seeing them a couple of times in concert, I eagerly anticipated the latest release from Interpol. However, I find my self disappointed with the new album, not so much because I feel it is a bad album, but because after listening to it 5 times, I would be hard pressed to talk of any songs that grabbed my attention. I couldn't even start to hum a few bars of anything on it, and that is just so not Interpol.

Pioneer to the Falls, The Heinrich Maneuver and Rest My Chemistry sound like they would have fit in nicely with either of their first two albums, but neither would have been stand outs. Not that they are bad songs, they just don't grab you and pull your soul into the song like a good portion of their previous work would do.

For now, Our Love to Admire will sit in the drawer. I'll probably go see them in concert when they swing by, in hopes that their stellar live show will turn my opinion of the new material. Until then I'll throw on Turn on the Bright Lights and enjoy Interpol's past brilliance.