There’s a thin line between musical evolution and losing a magical sound. Interpol once owned its sound.
It was part of an early 2000s rock revolution of sorts and took over where Joy Division left off. It was the Cure of the new century and the Smiths of indie rock.
Turn on the Bright Lights (TOTBL) became a tense soundtrack to the pain of modern living and the warm colours and deep stresses of the big-city. That was in 2002.
Now, eight years and three albums later, those hoping for the rumoured return to TOTBL will be disappointed. There is little like it on the band’s latest, self-titled album and it is unashamed of its changing sound.
“Imagine if Radiohead made Pablo Honey again,” said guitarist Daniel Kessler in an interview with the Mail & Guardian from Atlanta, Georgia, getting to the end of the band’s United States tour.
Well, thank goodness Radiohead didn’t make Pablo Honey again, because it wasn’t its best. But that wasn’t his point. “We’re the same band, we have the same elements. We’re just moving forwards.”
Comparisons with the old
Interpol is difficult to understand in the context of its past three albums. After TOTBL came Antics, a cocky, stressful take on sex, drugs and the indie genre, with twisted hooks that brought a surprise on every track.
Then came Our Love to Admire, which, though more accessible than the first two, was still dark and thoughtful. The thread between all three albums was that every track was memorable and told its own haunting tale.
That is where new album Interpol is lacking. The sound has not been stretched to its extremes and is not as exciting as in former projects. It is far more subtle and many tracks sound as if they are trudging into nothingness.
The most obvious explanation for the lack of the electric spark that set Interpol apart in the past may well be the departure of bassist Carlos Dengler, probably one of the most loved and admired bassists of all time. But Kessler said they’re doing OK without him and he’s pretty happy so far with his replacement, David Pajo.
“He’s a real professional,” said Kessler. “He wasn’t part of the writing process, but there are times when we improvise. Carlos had a lot of things he wanted to attend to in his life, not just music, and it became clear to him that he couldn’t do it all. I think he will come back to music one day.” Kessler said the changing sound was the only obvious progression.
“We’re just trying to take a natural step forward,” he said. “We tried not to pay too much attention to our surroundings and to what people expect of us. We’ve had a couple of years to grow, we’ve tried to explore new sound and new melody. We used a lot more orchestration and keyboards.”
“We gauge our albums..”
Kessler said they are happy with the response to the album so far. “We gauge our albums only by our fans. When we play Lights, people react [to them] like our old songs. Lights is the single off Interpol and is certainly the closest in sound to TOTBL and Antics. It gives vocalist Paul Banks the most scope for his haunting, heart-wrenching voice.
“There’s a great sense of atmosphere on these tracks; they’re cohesive,” said Kessler. “It’s very much an album album. We looked at the best way of balancing out the record.”
The opening track, Success, and Lights, though quite accessible, are catchy and fun. Later tracks on the album, such as All of the Ways and Undoing, partly sung in Spanish, have a similar atmospheric sound to the better tracks on the band’s third album and are centred on interesting guitar loops.
Interpol was quick in the making, taking only three weeks to record. Kessler said they wrote from January to July last year and were in the studio by August.
He believes true fans will like what they do, even though it may not be the sound that reeled them in in the first place. “People who have spent time with our last three records will get this one. You can’t get stuck in the same box for too long. We’re still a rock band playing rock music.”
He doesn’t think TOTBL is the band’s best album, but declines to say which is.
Although the band has not lost the abstract and difficult darkness that is its trademark, many of the tracks seem to lack tension and excitement, substituted instead with a great deal of self-reflection and wallowing. It’s definitely still Interpol, but missing that special something that gave its darkness some colour.