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After its 2004 release "Antics," Interpol established itself as one of today's premier rock bands. It has kept up the "wall of sound" style of music and vocalist Paul Banks' extremely distinct voice, mixing aspects of the band U2 and Joy Division. It's been a while since we have last heard from Interpol, and "Our Love to Admire" was almost worth the three-year wait.
Being its first major label release, the production has stepped up, most noticeably with the addition of keyboards in its arsenal. This new facet helped to create a more textured work as most evident on the intro track "Pioneer of the Falls."
This album, as well as "Antics," hasn't lived up to the perfectly mesmerizing quality of Interpol's debut, "Turn on the Bright Lights," but "Our Love To Admire" is able to hold on to a bit of the sound that drew so many to this band in the first place. Songs such as "Pace is the Trick" and "Rest my Chemistry" are definitely reminiscent of the original Interpol.
"Mammoth" is the stand out with driving bass and drums that lead into little flashes of guitar that break from the usual repetitive (in a good way) strumming. Banks' voice is especially haunting in this by acting as his own back-up singer in a very Josh Homme way. Song content follows Homme's style as well, which is very different from Banks' typical vernacular. Lyrics such as "Lady rain/ I can't deny/ I gotta taste, a taste, a taste and it's time." and "Now that's enough with this f****** incense/ Just spare me the suspense," show Banks' cutting back on the metaphors to give a more attached-to-reality story.
Usually the last track on an Interpol album is superb but on this one, it falls short. Especially for a quality album, to end it with a drawn out, somewhat directionless track such as "The Lighthouse" is beyond me. The delay effect in the beginning and throughout the song sounded cool in the beginning but it just doesn't drive the song anywhere. Banks' barely-there vocals make this song good background music more than a strong note to leave the album on. The song takes four-and a-half minutes to finally arrive somewhere and then it just disappears within a minute.
Although this isn't the Interpol I fell in love with five years ago, it has evolved its sound into something to call its own. "Our Love to Admire" is a product of a more mature Interpol, musically and lyrically. After three albums, it has showed its staying power and the future of this band is very interesting. I just hope the future doesn't take another three years to reveal itself.
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