Interpol Our Love To Admire by: Tom Bradbury Mon:30-Jul-07 Label: Capitol Year: 2007 WB rating 62 out of 100

Our Love To Admire is the sound of Interpol grasping for artistic status.This record burns with obvious ambition, and one can’t help but feel that Interpol aspire to achieve the respect heaped upon groups like Arcade Fire and Radiohead – to be one of the major artists of their generation. Interpol will not achieve any such status with this album - it’s the obligatory misstep of a band that has so far yet to put a foot wrong in its career. It’s not a record without merits, but it is none the less disappointing, as Interpol’s past efforts prove they are capable of far better.

The first single from the album, ‘The Heinrich Maneuver’, is fairly unrepresentative of the rest of Our Love To Admire. It’s the sort of track that has been Interpol’s bread and butter for the last five years: catchy in a transcendently melancholic and neurotic sort of way, and highly danceable. Yet there are not many up tempo tracks on this album, unlike Interpol’s previous two efforts, and it’s poorer for it. Apart from the fact the up-tempo songs are great singles on their own; they provide needed balance to Interpol’s trudging, drearier side. Their sound has moved in a more complex, cluttered direction, with structures more akin to classical music than traditional rock – movements rather than standard verses and choruses. It’s a move that Interpol does not quite manage to pull off.

‘Pioneer to the Falls’ demonstrates this intent. Subtle keys and synth intermingle with the band’s standard instrumentation, showing the band’s desire to turn a new leaf, but the track is bloated in every sense. The same problem can be heard on ‘Rest My Chemistry’. The interplay between Carlos D’s bass and Daniel Kessler’s guitar produces an immense feeling of weight, as if the chords are being held down by bricks, each strum a taxing effort. Perhaps it is too much weight, because the song feels bogged down rather than heavy with meaning. Both tracks make the mistake of supplanting immediacy with needless complexity, losing the sense of forward momentum which has always been Interpol’s calling card.

‘All Fired Up’ is the song on which Interpol come closest to pulling off their vision. Its still complex, but the different parts mesh well rather than sounding slapped together, meaning there is a feeling of urgency and continuity. It helps that the song also has a faster beat. Yet Interpol are at their most affecting on this album when they steer clear of complexity. Perhaps the simplest track on this album is its best. ‘Pace Is The Trick’ is uncharacteristically gentle, lacking Interpol’s usual blunt edge, and features guitar work that would almost be called pretty. It’s a song that shows the direction the band should be heading – continuing to refine their music rather than inflate it. Paul Banks even sings beautiful back up harmonies, not something Interpol have traditionally been known for. Along the lines of ‘Untitled’, it caresses rather than bludgeons, and with ‘The Heinrich Maneuver’ it’s the strongest track. Unfortunately, it is also atypical of the album.

It remains to be seen if Interpol can find a way to grow artistically without collapsing under their weight. Tracks like the aforementioned ‘Pace Is The Trick’ show it is possible, but the future may lie in different pastures to what they were expecting. There is no set path to musical maturation, and hopefully Interpol will realize this before they stray to far down the path they have already outlined for themselves - they might be better off toning down than bulking up.