Interpol Our Love To Admire Rating: 5.0 Label: Capitol For fans of: Depeche Mode, Joy Division, Editors

So I just listened to the new album from Interpol, Our Love to Admire, for the fourth time through and I get the feeling I just licked a half dead nine volt battery from an RC car I got when I was 12. You know the feeling. You take it out of its case and you’re all excited waiting for that shock on the tip of your tongue telling you that the battery is still good. Once you finally grow a pair and jam that thing onto the tip of your tongue you clench expecting it to zap the hell out of your mouth and nothing really happens. Now you’re left sitting there with a car that won’t make it halfway down your driveway and that gross metallic taste in your mouth.

The album starts off strong enough with Pioneer To The Falls. It’s one of those subtle and almost eerie sounding tracks that makes you wonder if you just walked into some sort of haunted carnival, but immediately falls short in the second track, No I In Threesome. Even that song isn’t so terrible until Paul Banks makes the dreadful mistake of actually saying “there’s no I in threesome” in the last minute of the song completely negating the enjoyment I got from the first 2 and half minutes of that track.

The guys even keep it strong instrumentally through out the next couple tracks ,The Scale and the albums first single The Heinrich Maneuver, breaking away from the slow droning sound just enough to keep you listening to see how up beat they dare get on the album. The Heinrich Maneuver itself is, in my opinion, the best track on the album. A quick paced bass driven song that seems more at home with a half witted NYU student trying to prove they listen to indie music then on an album from NYC mopesters Interpol.

However once you get through the first half of the album you realize its short falling. Somewhere in between Mammoth and Pace Is The Trick you begin to notice the album start to pan out and it just doesn’t have the same allure it did 20 minutes ago when you started listening to it. The guitar lines in All Fired Up leave something to be desired. Three and a half minutes of the same slides up and down between the same 5 notes with a lack of any kind of interesting bass or drums to compliment just didn’t do it for me. Rest My Chemistry was well your average Interpol song reminiscent of previous albums. Nothing too exciting there.

Things got a bit more enticing with Who Do You Think?. It wasn’t phenomenal but it wasn’t terrible either. The kind of effort a teacher says good job and leaves sloppy smiley face on the front of a B graded book report just to let you know you could have done better. The following track, Wrecking Ball, was the wrecking ball of the album. Don’t even bother, just fall asleep before you hear this song. It’s boring, drawn out and just not enough of an effort to listen to. It was nice to hear the use of a wide variety of instruments finally something not so bass or drum driven, but all the track did was lead you into the final track The Lighthouse. Finally it ends. Of course it ends with another long slow kill yourself sounding song. It’s a long stroll in a dark echoing cave begging you to stay conscious long enough to finish the album or be lost in it forever.

All in all I thought I liked it until I heard it a couple times and realized every time I got past the midway point I just wasn’t enjoying it anymore. It is new and it starts off great but commits suicide by the end. Seriously though what did you really expect from Interpol? It’s not like they’re a feel good kind of band. Still, whether it was my fault for anticipating the album or the hype I’d heard surrounding it, I couldn’t help being disappointed. It’s a suicidal album that hates itself for having so much energy at inception, oh wait it’s an Interpol album. Silly me.

Written by: Andrew on September 15th, 2007 | Filed under Music Reviews