Another late night at work is over
and I’m home and ready to review an album.
Disc 832 is….Our Love to Admire
Artist: Interpol
Year of Release: 2007
What’s up with the Cover? “Nature, red in tooth and claw” as
Alfred, Lord Tennyson would say. This is one of those photos where no one seems
to be having a good time. Both lions look sad, although the one on the left
looks more depressed and the one on the right merely cranky. The antelope just
looks bored, or maybe that is just resignation. All things considered, he’s
taking the whole “I’m being preyed upon” thing pretty well.
How I Came To Know It: I think Sheila heard about this
album and bought it for me for Christmas or a birthday. I’m a bit hazy on the
details. Maybe I bought it for her?
How It Stacks Up: I once had two Interpol albums: this one and
“Antics” which I reviewed back at Disc 518 and then promptly sold.
Fortunately, I like “Our Love to Admire” a lot better.
Ratings: 3 stars.
Interpol is the oughts’ answer to eighties Goth bands
like the Smiths and the Cure; deep and woeful and occasionally so affected as
to lose the emotional impact it intended. That said, “Our Love to Admire” a
guilty pleasure. I quite liked this album, flaws and all.
It starts strong with “Pioneer to the Falls” and its ominous opening line:
“Show me the dirt pile
And I will pray that the soul can
take
Three stowaways”
The music is haunting and Paul Banks’ vocals are
creepy and discordant, which is what this song needs. I’m not sure what “Pioneer to the Falls” is about.
Something dark and depressing though, and probably related to death. That’s how
Interpol rolls, much like their Goth forebears. The song ends with:
“In a passion it broke
I pull the black from the gray
But the soul can wait
I felt you so much today.”
Because gray wasn’t depressing enough, they had to
pull the black from it.
The album lightens up with the (relatively) fun-loving
“No I in Threesome” which is pretty
much about what you’d expect. Interpol handles the topic with a sexy energy
that reminded me of Depeche Mode when they are feeling naughty.
Unfortunately after a promising beginning the album
loses its momentum. Banks’ vocal style is to sing everything with Great Import
but often at the cost of investing any real emotion. The songs are very stark
and the excess reverb and other effects gloss over the melodies on a lot of the
tracks. It is OK for mood music (if your mood is gloomy) but it doesn’t have
enough pathos to draw me in.
The album’s single “The Heinrich Maneuver” is full of restless energy but never feels
like it gets anywhere. It is like a kid that’s eaten too many candies and now
his mom won’t let him go play outside and he’s bouncing off the walls. This isn’t
a bad song but it just reminds me too much of the Killers, which is not a good
thing.
The guys do generate a fairly unique sound of echo
and angst, and they have a good understanding of how to make studio production
serve that sound. It would be interesting to hear these songs done acoustically
or maybe sung by someone else (sorry Paul).
Near the end of the album though, as I was losing
interest, the record was redeemed by “Rest
My Chemistry” a song about drug abuse. A lot of “Our Love to Admire” feels
raw, burned out, or lyrically disconnected. These qualities work in their
favour on “Rest My Chemistry” which
takes place more than two days into the binge:
“I haven't slept for two days
I've bathed in nothing but sweat
And I've made hallways scenes for
things to regret.
My friends they come.
And the lines they go by
“Tonight I'm gonna rest my
chemistry
Tonight I'm gonna rest my
chemistry”
Hearing this song is like feeling the frayed nerves
of someone who has finally reached the end of their endurance and decided to
take a night off. He hasn’t come down yet and his body is thrumming (again
mirrored in the music), but he is ready to do so. I also like the double
meaning of “rest my chemistry,” both putting aside the drugs and also resting
his own body’s chemistry. The song does not suggest the craving is gone for
good, but merely that he is taking a breather. Interpol infuses this small
victory with all the importance they can muster.
Overall “Our Love to Admire” has some annoyances but
it also has a few victories, chief among them “Rest My Chemistry.” Add it all up and you get a good album, but not
a great one.
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