27th September - Interpol's Antics

Artist – Album: Interpol - Antics

Released:  27^th September 2004

Sounds Like: Interpol (who else?)

Antics is a strange name for an album brought to you by everyone’s favourite New York murk-merchants. There’s little in the way of foolish, outrageous or amusing behaviour in this set – more straight-laced and pained – and, to be honest, it just wouldn’t feel right if there was.

So what’s changed from Turn on the Bright Lights? Comfortingly very little. Interpol continue to trade in punchy rhythms and almost comically bleak sounds, remaining both accessible and weird. Album opener ‘Next Exit’ at first seems strangely stately and un-Interpol-esque, but then if you remember that their debut had begun with the similar elegant ‘Untitled’ it becomes vaguely familiar. Everything is a little more loose and danceable, the production is clearer and the songs have been shorn of any unnecessary fluff, thus avoiding the first album’s slight dip towards the end, but this could still only be an Interpol record.

Lead singer Paul Banks has a brilliant characterful voice despite his gloomy limited range. On ‘Evil’ and ‘Public Pervert’ he possess the cool, detached fascination of an A-grade psycho, like a rock star Dexter, whilst ‘Slow Hands’ and ‘C’mere’ have the fragility of an old gentlemen struggling to retain his composure. These are backed by lyrics such as “can’t you see what you’ve done to my heart” and “the trouble is you’re in love with someone else” and make for a more personal record than Turn on the Bright Lights.

All in all Antics is an only slightly less good follow up to a fine first record, and cements Interpol stance as one of the best rock groups of the 21^st Century. I can also confirm that despite now being four albums old, they’ve still never dreamed of getting up to any antics.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       Next Exit – 3:20

2.       Evil – 3:35

3.       Narc – 4:07

4.       Take You on a Cruise – 4:54

5.       Slow Hands – 3:04

6.       Not Even Jail – 5:46

7.       Public Pervert – 4:40

8.       C’mere – 3:11

9.       Length of Love – 4:06

10.   A Time to Be So Small – 4:50

Listen to ‘C’mere’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaDw4CAcXVE  

20th August - Interpol's Turn On the Bright Lights

Artist - Album: Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
Released: 20th August 2002
Sounds like: Well, Joy Division, kind of...

Following the huge success of the Strokes around the turn of the millennium, there was a vogue for bands with punchy guitars and oh so tight rhythm sections. Although there was a gaggle of straight imitators and Strokey-likeys who suddenly appeared on the scene - here's looking at you, The Vines - the fact that the chief characteristics were more to do with style and approach than actual genres meant that they could be applied to quite different forms of music. Case in point: Interpol, who were enamoured with Eighties post-punk and goth a la Joy Division and The Cure, but could Strokes it with the best of them.

This, their debut, turned out to be one of the best albums of the decade. It's gloomy and paranoid true, but it's also imminently accessible (opener 'Untitled' was used on an episode of Friends for God's sake) and totally enjoyable. As a counterpoint to the dreamy, minimalistic 'Untitled', 'Obstacle 1' assaults the senses. Jagged guitars stab at you like Norman Bates, whilst Paul Banks barks psychotic lyrics at you menancingly. It's an absolite belter. The third track, the ballad 'NYC', is a favourite of Michael Stipes.

Bands keep cropping up that sound like Strokey-cats, but those that mimiced Interpol have long since dried up. That may be because theirs is not an easy sound to copy, or because there's less commercial potential in it, or simply because 99% of people are more cheery than the New York mopers, but I like to think it's just because they're a bit special.

Analbumaday... rating: 9/10

1. Untitled – 3:56
2. Obstacle 1 – 4:11
3. NYC – 4:20
4. PDA – 4:59
5. Say Hello to the Angels – 4:28
6. Hands Away – 3:05
7. Obstacle 2 – 3:47
8. Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down – 6:28
9. Roland – 3:35
10. The New – 6:07
11. Leif Erikson – 4:00

Listen to 'Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down': www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s5lzcKpu0Q