I’m really having trouble placing Interpol’s latest offering. On the one hand, the artwork and the time it’s taken the band to make the album suggest something that’s well thought out, intricate, exciting and, above all, new. After all, it is the band’s first full-length album since the fairly average (but still notable) self-titled release in 2010. On the other hand, there were tracks that sounded like they had been included purely for the sake of fleshing the album out into more than just a long EP.
One of the reasons for the long lapse between releases is partly due to the departure of bassist Carlos Denglar after Interpol was released, as well as the arrival of Brandon Curtis as a more permanent keyboard player. Naturally, it would take time for the new line-up to settle, but sometimes, with a new line-up comes a whole host of new and exciting sounds, and I assumed Interpol would have spent the last four years honing in this exciting array of new aural delights.
In fairness, they did, but not to the extent I expected. Out of the 10 songs on the album, I would rate five; ‘My Desire’, ‘Same Town, New Story’, ‘Ancient Ways’, ‘Tidal Wave’, and Twice as Hard. The reason I’ve left out ‘All the Rage Back Home’ is because, even though it’s a great album opener, I don’t think it should’ve been the lead single. The other four? They’re the equivalent of salad in a sandwich; filler.
The reason I’ve picked out those five is because the band uses pretty much the same mixture of sounds throughout the album, but there, they make something interesting out of it instead of just generic rock. Especially in ‘Same Town, New Story’, which has a distinctly jazzy feel about it, and is the first point in the album where I actually thought ‘hey, this is new!’ despite it still being led in and driven by Paul Banks’ illustrious crunchy guitar riffs (it takes until ‘Everything is Wrong’ for any song not to be led in by a guitar, and even then it’s Banks on bass).
After ‘My Blue Supreme’ I contemplated comparing El Pintor to Turn Blue by The Black Keys, an album that I was not at all impressed with. Both bands have been together since the ’90s, grown bigger, gone through some stuff, and ultimately matured. Unfortunately for The Black Keys, this meant that they lost their edge, and in my opinion, every track on Turn Blue aside from ‘Fever’ was over-thought, over-produced and below par.
I don’t think Interpol have reached that stage just yet, and the idea of comparing them to Turn Blue faded as the album came to the end. Three very different tracks placed side-by-side, each with its own distinct voice play the album out to a more satisfying conclusion. I’m not sure about placing the short burst of raw energy of ‘Ancient Ways’ before the slower, synth-ier ‘Tidal Wave’, which has a steady build-up. But if that’s my only criticism at this point, then I feel they’ve done enough to redeem the album from the depths of over-production.
The sad truth is that Interpol have lost some of their rawness, but from the videos I’ve seen, they still put on a cracking live show, which is something.
The album will be released on Matador Records.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni9bLpflDCY]