Interpol

Our Love to Admire

November 04, 2007

By Mr. Marlowe

** / ****

Released 2007

It is nearly impossible for Interpol to release an album as good as their debut, Turn On the Bright Lights, but that doesn’t mean they should stop trying. While almost nothing could surprise as that particular album did in 2002 it isn’t out of the question for Interpol to churn out another Joy Division inspired masterpiece if the stars ever align. But alas, with their latest, Our Love to Admire the moon certainly isn’t in the House of Jupiter. Not even close.

The third release from this generation’s favorite brooding post-punk artistes, Our Love to Admire could more appropriately be titled Who Turned Out the Lights? That thought encapsulates my feelings listening to the band’s newest effort, which alternately drags its feet with plodding, repetitive sulking and chugging pop silliness. Forget about “200 hundred couches to sleep on” and “stabbing herself in the neck,” instead we get “how are things on the west coast?” and “there’s no I in threesome.” Those songs, The Heinrich Maneuver and There’s No I in Threesome, while still fashionably bearing the obtuse titles we’ve come to know and love from Interpol, fail to back the marquee names with any type of noticeable chutzpa. Instead, they hang out in Antics territory (the band’s second album) as nice though unmemorable pop tunes from a band whose best work is done outside pop territory. As for All Fired Up, Interpol’s most blatant stab at the pop charts, that tune is just plain horrendous.

Interpol’s efforts in no-pop land, coincidentally, also fail sealing the album’s doom, but for different reasons. Going too far with their arrangements these post-punk explorations never seem to find the hooks that made Turn On’s flashier numbers so excellent. Instead they drone on and on until we plead for mercy and move to the next track. The big exception is Wrecking Ball, which gently floats out of the gate daring us to fall in love with our misery. Now that’s what Interpol is all about and the tune is an instant classic. Shame it’s the only time they prove their greatness on Our Love to Admire, an album that continues Interpol’s slide from the best little band on the planet to just another group of indie imposters.

Best Songs: Wrecking Ball, No I in Threesome

Coolest Titles (without the songs to back them up): Pioneer to the Falls, The Heinrich Maneuver, The Lighthouse