CD Odyssey Disc 832: Interpol

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.

Best tracks:  Pioneer to the Falls, No I in Threesome, Rest My Chemistry

CD Odyssey Disc 518: Interpol

Today is my stepfather Lawrence’s 83^rd birthday.  He’s having a hard time of it these days but he’s a good man, and I love him.  Happy birthday, Lawrence.

I wish I could have celebrated Lawrence’s birthday with a better album, but the dice gods had other plans.

Disc 518 is…. Antics

Artist: Interpol

Year of Release: 2004

What’s up with the Cover?  I like the simplicity, but would it kill these guys to leave a space between the band name and the album name?

How I Came To Know It:  I believe Sheila discovered this band on the radio through their 2007 album “Our Love To Admire.”  Seeing that she liked them I decided to get her another one of their records for a gift and this was it.

How It Stacks Up:  We only have two Interpol albums; this one and the aforementioned “Our Love To Admire.”

Rating:  2 stars but only barely.

As you may have noticed, I have a bit of a music habit, and it often leads me to mine an entire artist’s collection when I decide I like them.  With a few notable exceptions, Sheila is generally happy to get just those records she really likes.  Because of this, when I buy Sheila a CD as a gift I try to make sure I get her something that I think she’ll like more than me.  Otherwise, it is just me feeding my own insatiable music habit.

Sheila really likes “Interpol’s” 2007 album, “Our Love to Admire” and I thought it was pretty good too, so getting “Antics” - their previous album – seemed like a safe bet on all counts.  I would’ve been better off gambling on Scratch N’ Wins.

“Antics” is the worst of modern indie music.  A boring conglomeration of people plunking away on multiple instruments to make a droning wall of sound that essentially deadens what little melody is worth hearing.

I had a hard time figuring out what most of the songs were about because they were so monotone just paying attention was a challenge. I looked for lyrics in the CD booklet, but it was just page after page of out-of-focus band member shots, white dots and dashes on a black background, and two out of focus shots of hallway lamps that look like an art-school project gone wrong.

The one thing I’ll stand up for is the rhythm section, which is pretty good.  The drummer is strong and the bass player actually lays down some interesting licks, when the excessive production isn’t drowning him out.

The opening track, “Next Exit” is also pretty good overall.  It has a nice slow tempo and a sparse production that showcases a bit of tastefully placed piano.  Even the guitar player shows his stuff when he finally gets a chance to do a little actual playing, rather than the two or three repeating notes that mars the remainder of the record. 

The rest of the songs all have the same repetitive sound.  They will occasionally start with an interesting riff here or there, but it isn’t long before the band has drowned it into the usual talk-shouting of obtuse lyrics and jangling repetitive arrangements that make even four minute songs feel interminably long. 

The lead singer (whatever his name is) has that droning emotionless vibrato that has spoiled more than a few good albums, except this is not a good album to start with. Sheila thinks the singing style sounds like a cross between Morrissey and Ethel Merman and I must agree.

Like the Smiths, this is music for awkward teens to lie on their bed staring at the ceiling, occasionally sighing or exclaiming “Gawd!  Life is so lame!”  Alternatively, it could be used as auditory scene decoration for an episode of the Vampire Diaries or any other one of the soap operas masquerading as Gothic art these days.

Whatever this music is, it isn’t for me.  I still enjoy their follow up, “Our Love To Admire” and I’m looking forward to reviewing that one when I roll it.  As for “Antics” I’ll be parting ways with it permanently, with Sheila’s full blessing.

Best tracks:  Next Exit