.date Jul-05-2007

.genre indie

Release Notes:
Moving up to a major label has hardly lifted
Interpol's spirits. This is a good thing. Even with
the twisted Wild Kingdom album cover and bassist
Carlos Dengler's unexpected Wild West makeover, on
its third studio album the black-clad New York
quartet still sounds inflexibly menacing, grasping
tighter than ever to its doomy post-punk influences
and delving further into frontman Paul Banks's
emotional unrest. Everything sounds a little bigger
and brighter, sure, but at their core songs like
"Rest My Chemistry" and "Wrecking Ball" are
heroically sinister, goaded on by prickly riffs and
slow-bleeding rhythms. The group briefly jumps to
life on the buzzing "Heinrich Manouver" and
exhibits an unexpected dash of humor on "No I in
Threesome," but it's the closing "Lighthouse" that
best defines the set--a late-night lament that
simply steals away into the dark. --Aidin Vaziri

Our Love To Admire is at once unmistakably Interpol
and undeniably new. The witty and perverse "No I In
Threesome" is an upbeat ode to shaking up a staid
relationship propelled by Carlos D's peerless bass
melody while the tenderly observant "Pace Is the
Trick" proves that the band are still the masters
of the dramatic check the painful pause right
before the sinfully satisfying return of Sam's
thundering drums and Daniel's ringing lead guitar.
The band's impressively seductive evolution is
obvious all over the record, but never more so than
on tracks like "Mammoth," "Who Do You Think" and on
the album's lyrical centerpiece, the ghostly "Rest
My Chemistry." While Daniel is understandably proud
of the song he cautions against reading too much
autobiography into its lyrics. "We always leave the
interpretation to the listener," he says. "I mean,
you shouldn't watch a movie for the first time
listening to the director's commentary!"

Our Love to Admire closes with "The Lighthouse," a
funereal dirge that is among the most unexpected
and memorable songs ever recorded by the band.
Almost entirely percussion-free, the song is
constructed around Daniel's mournful guitar and
Paul's sparten lyrics. Not only is it one of their
finest moments to date, it provides the album's
most goose-bump inducing moment, the very same
reflex shivers that make Interpol live shows such
an exhilarating experience. As the very last song
the band recorded for the album it was, they say,
the hardest to play. The hypnotic guitar part was
played on a 50-year-old guitar that had toxins on
the strings, providing Daniel with a blistering and
painful sensation in his fingers. The band weren't
even sure the track would make it out of the
studio, but once they heard Paul's remarkable
vocals they were floored. The song and the album
doesnt so much end as it bleeds to a close with
a long, echoey coda filled with feedback and
strings. A fittingly dramatic end to a stunning and
emotional journey. Interpol is back, every bit as
good as before but charged with a new spirit, a new
direction, a new label and, most of all, a new
confidence.

.tracks

01. Pioneer To the Falls 05:42
02. No I In Threesome 03:51
03. The Scale 03:25
04. The Heinrich Maneuver 03:29
05. Mammoth 04:13
06. Pace Is the Trick 04:37
07. All Fired Up 03:35
08. Rest My Chemistry 05:01
09. Who Do You Think 03:13
10. Wrecking Ball 04:33
11. The Lighthouse 05:24
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