A bit of an unexpected challenge to mark the 10th birthday of Interpol’s third album, Our Love To Admire. Rather than the usual 140, or so, characters for a social media post, BBC Radio 6 Music commissioned a full review for their Facebook page (for anyone only requiring the pithy summary, their Twitter has a more concise appreciation).
Ironically for a band so ingrained in – and informed by – New York, Interpol’s Our Love To Admire was the first album they actually recorded within NYC’s precincts. Perhaps it was the experience of working inside the teaming metropolis, but on the band’s third record their claustrophobic world of nighthawks and taught sonics suddenly grew a lot bigger… Mammoth, even. The intricate guitar symphonies and stream of consciousness lyrics remained, but there’s a stately swagger to much of this record as Interpol added muscle to their sound. Opening track Pioneer To The Falls grows from tiny lights before harmonic waves crash in; powered by a stabbing bass-line, The Heinrich Maneuver swings with a gloriously violent abandon; while the aforementioned Mammoth chimes with breathless energy. Yet Our Love To Admire avoids bombast. No I In Threesome allows Paul Banks’ humour to seep to the fore, delivering possibly the most passionate pop song extolling the relationship benefits of a ménage à trois, while the delicate dabs guitarist Daniel Kessler places on the likes of Rest My Chemistry and Wrecking Ball, add contrast and depth to the Interpol edifice. A little under appreciated at the time, so many of Our Love To Admire’s tracks have become solid live favourites, suggesting that unlike the extinct, stuffed beasts featuring on the cover, this record has only got better with age.
Question: I thought the attacking beasts on the cover were sabre tooth tigers and there for extinct, but comments on the original post suggest the species might be very much alive… any thoughts?
Paul Stokes – Journalist 