Interpol

Editor's Review:

I wasn't sold on Turn On the Bright Lights and its accompanying flood of fawning critics and fans. Not that there was anything implicitly bad about Interpol's first record; it just never reached out and grabbed me. So much stark and dark, liberally borrowing from manic '80s pop, and a singer with roughly five notes at his disposal…sorry, I'll stick with my copy of the Cure's The Head On The Door, thank you. You can take or leave garage rock and the excessive tabloid headline lifestyle, but when you're talking pop music, there'd better be a hook and a melody, and it'd better be memorable. Contrary to most of my peers, I just didn't see what the Interpol hubbub was all about. Then I heard "Evil."
"Evil," the second track off Antics, perfectly portrays the essence of harrowing solitude, somehow silhouetted by hopeful optimism, all tied in a neat little package by perhaps the most unshakable hook recorded in the last decade (with a melody that, coincidentally, contains roughly five notes. No wonder blues players stuck to pentatonic scales…). Instead of simply feeding off the carrion of the reanimated '80s pop zombie, Antics takes its influences and infuses them with sleek, straight to the jugular songwriting and enough nervous energy to drive a square city block. It would be surprising if Antics didn't cement Interpol as one of the quintessential bands of the 2000s. And while innovation still isn't their strong suit, sometimes it pays to keep it simple and on course.
- Maurice S. Teilmann

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Record Label Matador Records Released September 2004

Tracks No Exit Evil Narc Take You On A Cruise Slow Hands Not Even Jail Public Pervert C'mere Length Of Love Time To Be So Small, A

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