Interpol
Our Love to Admire
(Capitol)
More experimental sounding than predecessors Turn on the Bright Lights and Antics, Our Love to Admire is notable for an increased reliance on piano and keyboard arrangements in contrast to Interpol's previously sparse arrangements. The subsequent wash of synthesisers gives the New York band's third album a slick veneer, and it remains to be seen whether Interpol will hang on to their mystery for much longer.
Montreal clearly bears a notable influence also, with Interpol employing piano arrangements straight out of the Arcade Fire songbook, particularly on the bass-driven No I in Threesome. A similar sense of doom pervades, with singer Paul Banks observing clouds of fire, storms and light and 'the destruction of men,' all rendered in his metallic approximation of Placebo's Brian Molko and Michael Stipe.
Indeed, Banks' cold tones provide much of the appeal here. He has a gift for imagery, at one point describing a lover as being 'like a daisy in my lazy eye'. Elsewhere, he is simply sinister, emerging 'bathed in sweat' and doing questionable things in hallways and staircases.
