Interpol – Interpol

It’s been a slow month here, again, and not because I haven’t been busy with other stuff. But I had to come and devote at least 20 minutes of my time into Interpol’s latest, new, brilliant album. I had heard some bits and pieces and was initially, a bit disappointed. I knew I would still buy it no matter what so when I finally put it on and gave it time, Interpol blew me away. It’s a dark and gloomy album and at times, depressingly realistic but on switching back to Matador, I think they’ve captured some of the magic the first two albums had. Don’t get me wrong, Our Love to Admire had some soaring highs but like the year 2007, those highs had to end. The new one is stunning and is most definitely, one of the best albums of the year. So here are two songs that I dig a lot.

“All of the Ways" is basically a bitter, broken and battered old soul reaching out to his long and now, lost, love. He asks, “Does he make you smile? Does he fully embrace the way…who is this guy?” as if he has some kind of right to know and beyond the fact that it’s a staunch nostalgic reminder of what can happen when love breaks down, the song is filled with a tremendous amount of sadness. There’s the recurring piano theme that first appeared earlier in the album, there’s pounding chords of dissonance and it’s a vast cloud of darkness. It’s creepy and intensely jealous, as if he is obsessed with her, he sings, “I know the way you will make it up, make it up for me.” Sounds like Interpol all right:


I wish I could fine one that mixes them in because that would have been heavenly to hear how they just melt into each other on the album – sorry. But “The Undoing” is like the misty, hazy next morning that finds you scratching and clawing yourself out of bed. Red-eyed, alone and “chasing my damage,” the song bends into Spanish lyrics! I mean, for a moment, if you bliss out to the music (clashing chords of strings that are utter beauty, ominous swelling and a drum pattern that is jagged and still, pacing) you forget that he is singing about God and Satan. Depicting Lucifer’s plight and struggle to move past God, the title of the song is sung in Spanish, “I’m used to losing, losing to ‘the undoing’ (desahcer)” and “Al puro perder el ganar no compara (Victory does not compare to utter defeat),” eventually “Sobreviviré” = “I Will Survive” and in the end, he’s asking us to “please place him” and to tell him where he is now, hell. Leave it to Interpol? Yeah, it’s pretty dark. – Bryan