Interpol - 'Our Love To Admire'
(Capitol Records, 2007)
Rating: 7

Having come of age as part of the same NYC rock movement that spawned the likes of The Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol have always walked the fine line that separates the reflective from the reflexive. With a dour disposition and a knack for melancholic melodymaking with a classic pop underbelly, Interpol have distanced themselves from most of their contemporaries while mining the past endeavors of bands like Joy Division and The Cure. Their latest album, Our Love To Admire, continues this tightwalking trend, as the band expands upon former calling cards while undertaking a select few experimental exploits. The album aptly displays their appreciation for the songwriting process while demonstrating a reluctance to step outside of a working model (that admittedly has worked well for them thus far) that prevents Interpol from taking that proverbial next step out of the NYU fashion faux goth ghetto. This duality makes for an interesting if not entirely satisfying listen.

Interpol have never lacked for songwriting ability. As with their previous outings, Our Love To Admire showcases their collective ability to not only conceptualize but execute their musical vision. The compositions are tight and layered, with just enough artistic flourishes via a keyboard here or a held guitar strum there to round out a sound that has become perhaps first nature. Inasmuch as they unquestionably have good instincts and great points of reference for their craft, it is nonetheless a little disappointing to see them not expand upon their process more than they do on this album. Their strengths are still quite strong, but in listening to the album, one can’t help but wonder why the band didn’t make the effort to push themselves a little more creatively given what by now should be a confidence that would allow for such expenditures.

Their unwillingness to explore less traveled arenas is all the more confounding given the album’s bookends, Pioneer To The Falls and The Lighthouse. The former is a haunting meditation that evokes the recent work of Arcade Fire, as leadman Daniel Kessler describes “pulling the black from the gray” while guitar notes ominously ring and seem to evaporate in a translucent sonic mist. The album closer is an austere and elegiac mix of tremolo guitar tones and hushed echoes that finds Kessler conjuring Michael Stipe as he wonders aloud “What do the waves have to say now”. Both tracks hint at directions in which the band might be well served to explore, yet the bulk of the album resists such measures, as the band opts instead to augment their appreciation for tightly knit pop songs with new wave goth tinges. The songs are well done and feature plenty of whirring guitar lines and hummable melodies, but the songs tend to bleed into one another once you make it past Pioneer’s initial reverie. Interpol have a pretty fucking solid rhythm section in bassist Carlos D. and drummer Sam Fogarino, but Kessler’s tight compositions don’t always provide the necessary room for the wholesale plying of their trade, as D. and Fogarino appear underutilized at times in deferring to their frontman. Gotham bands have always struggled with the ability to separate laconic cool from dispassionate ennui, and Kessler’s delivery can come perilously close to a flatlined monotone, with intonations that can move from somber to somnambulant without the vocal benefits of dramatic shifts in tone or pitch. His lyrics reveal a sharp and emotive wit, but this wit can occasionally be lost in the translation offered via the delivery of his lines. All of this is not to say that Our Love To Admire is not a good record. In basic terms, the album successfully showcases the abilities and tendencies that have allowed Interpol to connect with their core audience. If they have designs on growing that audience, though, they might want to shine a spotlight on the gray areas they only seem to flirt with on this album.

- Brant Miles