So Much Grace

I never bought much into the whole “they sound so much like Joy Division” thing. I am sick and tires of people mentioning in or talking about how one most go through certain steps in understanding Interpol’s music and one of them being sniffing the “oh-so-obvious” JD influences. The only place where the two bands meet is the pit of emotional torment where Ian Curtis and Paul Banks seem to love to play together. Other than that, those people can shut up and (re)listen (carefully) to the three previous albums. Or just to the (now) trio’s most recent work of genius, Interpol.

Your forth album being self titled might seem like a lack of inspiration, but with Interpol, as with other bands in their position, it’s seems to be more of a strong statement of being themselves and removing any clutter around their music. Not once, from intro Success to outro The Undoing, does it feel like these guys take a chord from here or there other than themselves. It’s truly a reminder of who Interpol are and why we loved them to begin with.

This means that this record is not easy to crack: the marriage of austere fuzzy guitars and the flood of anguish and despair wraps it in a shell. And not only this, but also of the drums, Sam Fogarino hitting them hard like it is the only way to make the demons that gravitated around the lyrics go away. However there is something alluring that makes the shell break quickly, overtaking you, maybe the brief moments of joyfulness and energetic outburst. The energetic bass off Success and the uplifting guitar riff of Lights or the art disco scent of Barricade form little crack which help us enter Interpol’s otherwise hermetic world.

What is great about Interpol is that it forms an actual story. There is unity in the album, especially musically as each song flows into the other or and feels like a natural step further to the album’s closing song. Each song introduces new elements and each new element helps paint a better picture of this sonic landscape. Sure, these elements can be as varied as the bareness of Always Malaise (The Man I Am) with its haunting vocals compared to the explosions on Barricade or how All Of The Ways haunting piano and build-up echoing guitars precede the luminous guitars on The Undoing.

Interpol is quite a grand record that likes to stand tall and show off . And given its undeniably merits and grace, it has all the rights to. Interpol have successfully managed, once more, to remove any doubt and show themselves as the truly majestic band that they are. Now we can focus on another issue: will Dave Pajo (formerly of Slint) become the forth official Interpol and how will this affect their sound?