INTERPOL are a stubborn lot. Across 20 years and six albums, the New York post-punk rockers have faithfully refused to deviate far from their darkly angular sound.
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Perhaps it was the pandemic, or maybe it was just time, but Interpol's seventh album The Other Side Of Make Believe marks their greatest shift since they exploded onto the scene with their exhilarating 2002 debut Turn On The Bright Lights.
The Other Side Of Make Believe is still very much Interpol, but for the first time Paul Banks (vocals, bass), Daniel Kessler (guitar) and Sam Fogarino (drums) are attempting to push into untried directions.
Due to the pandemic the three members wrote separately for the first time and the results are obvious on Fables and Into The Night where Fogarino's expressive percussion is out of kilter with Kessler's guitar lines and Banks' melody, resulting in a hypnotic push-and-pull rhythm.
For the first time Interpol have also parred down their trademark intensity for the slow build of atmosphere. There's nothing as propulsive as their best-known tracks Obstacle 1 or Slow Hands, or even later-career singles Barricade and The Rover.
The opening track Toni begins with haunting piano as Banks croons, "Still in shape, my methods refined/ Long gone superstition's folly."
First single Something Changed also features softer piano instrumentation and Fogarino's off-kilter drumming, but Banks' lyrics and melody are tinged with his trademark darkness and ambiguity. "Something changed/ We're out gunning/ We all suffer the same faiths," Banks sings of the world post-COVID.
The one-time taut rhythm section is stretched to provide fresh space on the slow-burning Big Shot City, before it explodes into Interpol's trademark frenzy.
Renegade Hearts and Gran Hotel see Interpol return to their tense post-punk territory, but while Banks once sounded like Ian Curtis, his voice has become more fragile and expressive with age.
The Other Side Of Make Believe finds Interpol confident in expanding themselves, but also honest enough to understand their halcyon days are long past.