Interpol

Interpol

Released September 7 2010

OLE-945

Format: LP/CD/DA

2010’s Interpol was the long-awaited eponymous fourth album from the New York City band. Now a core trio (Paul Banks, Daniel Kessler, Sam Fogarino), the band’s return to Matador found them exploring dark musical landscapes of layered depth and intensity. In contrast to the band’s 2007 major-label flirtation Our Love To Admire, this self-titled opus hangs together as an album, a set of very different songs that thematically connect. From the highly melodic “Barricade” and “Lights” through the snarling “Memory Serves” and the extraordinary triptych of connected tracks that close the album, Interpol had never made work this emotionally resonant or packed with crescendos. Mixer Alan Moulder brought the rhythm section back to the fore, anchoring a thicket of orchestral sound that brings to mind touchstones from black metal to ‘70s art rock, but always remaining identifiably Interpol – hypnotic, bizarre, and indelible.