Categories : Featured Review, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 3.5/5 Released: July 10th, 2007 Reviewer: David Coats |
It’s been a long three years since Interpol was last heard from, when their sophomore record Antics cemented the band on the list of 2004 ‘it’ bands. In the interim, the ‘new’ new wave popularized in the early part of the decade, which Interpol was at the forefront of, ran its course. In response, Interpol has changed just enough to keep pace, embracing more contemporary indie sensibilities, but otherwise, this is classic Interpol. The lesson from Our Love to Admire is that even if the genre was a bit of a flash in the pan, Interpol was always above it.
Right from the opening chords, the band’s sense of confidence and cloak-of-darkness melodies are what sells these songs. Paul Banks remains one of the most identifiable and compelling-yet-unsettling voices in the business, and as ever, the band’s menacing sonic unease is in full swing. Opener ‘Pioneer to the Falls’ is a more fleshed-out, powerful version of Turn On The Bright Lights’ ‘Untitled,’ while ‘No I In Threesome’ and ‘Who Do You Think’ feature instrumentation and an aggressive rhythm reminiscent of the Arcade Fire. There are no bpm-centric songs this time, though the band’s notorious changes in dynamics are even more dramatic. The most upbeat songs, ‘Mammoth’ and lead single ‘The Heimlich Maneuver,’ still carry the high-but-depressed quality that Interpol conveys better than anyone. While Antics played more on the use of space, OLTA fills more of the gaps and muddies the atmospheric waters a little, even venturing into ballad territory (‘Wrecking Ball’). The riff-oriented straight-ahead rock of ‘Rest My Chemistry’ may be the record’s best song.
OLTA isn’t likely to surprise anyone either by its sound or its quality; it’s a natural fit for the Interpol catalogue, filled with above-average songs, even if they’re not as memorable as those from Antics, and as a whole, while it certainly isn’t going to displace Antics as the definitive Interpol record, the band proves they have the staying power we were banking on.
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