What immediately caught my attention is the line “I’m on the other side of make-believe” which is sung as opening on “Passenger”. It is the literal album title, but isn’t given particular attention. This brings back the “It’s up to me now, turn on the bright lights” bit from the song “NYC” on “Turn On The Bright Lights” (commonly referred to as TOTBL).
Most Interpol reviews go like this. With their first album TOTBL, Interpol was at the heart of the post-punk revival in the early 2000s, after 9/11, together with other bands like The Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The dark-laden yet alluring tracks are considered a unique feat by many music admirers. The follow-up album “Antics” more than confirmed and added a lot of fan favorites to their discography.
The third and fourth albums are considered gradually worse, with the latter self-titled album often being referred to as lacking inspiration whatsoever. The genius but hard-headed bassist Carlos Dangler then left, after which frontman Paul Banks decided to take up the bass playing himself. Album five was a gentle discovery of the new composition, and last album “Marauder” from 2018 proved Interpol to be back in shape with many snappy songs, especially “The Rover” and “Flight to Fancy“. The most frequent conclusion is that they are a good and respected semi-popular band, but not as good as their debuts promised, and sonically rather to the point as opposed to innovative.
I generally agree with this tendency of reviews, but find it bothers me as well. As if this is the only timeline of appraisal possible, copied and pasted by most, a funny regression to the mean of music journalism. Personally, for example, I enjoy the self-titled album as a whole more than both its predecessor and next in line, although it requires a few more listens to get into. The timeline also omits the 2019 EP “A Fine Mess“, which I adore.
The coherence of the new album is its main forte. There are no true highlights, but also no filler songs – all songs are pleasurable to spend a while with. As expected, any newness in approach is limited with the strong elements of a typical Interpol song remaining untouched: a melodic riff from Daniel Kessler’s hands (some piano this time though!), a strong interplay with Paul Banks’ rhythm guitar parts including the bass, the odd but clever lyrics, and the uplifting drum beats of Sam Fogarino. But it works lucidly together, it really does. Compared to the powerful melancholy from TOTBL, this album has the potential to reach similar levels of melancholy but with a gentler undertone.
For the record, my favorite song so far is “Gran Hotel”. Coincidentally, the music video is a Belgian production with well-known actress Anemone Valcke (recently in the movie “Cool Abdoul” about boxer Ismaïl Abdoul).
As always: four stars out of five. There’s much more to say about what (the B-sides and demos!) and why I like this band, but let me keep that for another time.