Released September 2014
Matador
6/10
Following the poorly received self- titled 2010 album and the departure of bassist Carlos Dengler, Interpol went under the radar for 4 years, returning with El Pintor, their first album as a three-piece.
The pressure on Interpol to create a worthy successor to their debut and magnum opus Turn on the Bright Lights (released in 2002), has been heavy. Although this is the best we’ve heard of the New York post-punk rockers since 2007, the struggle to deliver original material under pressure, added to by the loss of the talented Carlos D’s bass, is clear.
By no means is this a “bad” album, and it has strengths in songs like the single ‘All the Rage Back Home’, which shows there is still some creativity left in the tank with Kessler’s ethereal echo-y guitar twangs and Paul Banks’s driving, fast paced punk bass. Banks also employs a falsetto in his vocals which surprisingly works in tracks like ‘My Blue Supreme’ to create a soft melodic tone, and is a nice sigh of relief of his heavy baritone drone, found on tracks like ‘Ancient Ways’.
Other highlights include Banks showing his chops at bass in ‘Everything is Wrong’ in an infectious opening riff similar to that of Evil from their sophomore album Antics, the complimentary bass and guitar swirls of ‘Tidal Wave’, and the emotion of Banks’ wounded moans in ‘Twice as Hard’.
However, Interpol are, at the same time, trapped in a form of limbo – between trying to recapture the old sound but without Carlos D’s bass (‘My Desire’ sounds eerily similar to Our Love to Admire’s ‘All Fired Up’) and evolving to create a new sound without becoming a bland and insignificant band, which would be a massive let down following such a promising start to their career.
El Pintor does have some good moments, however it is clear that the band is desperately clutching on to their past success and seems too stubborn to let go. I pray that the trio use El Pintor as a transitional album into whatever new sound they come up with, as there are some genuinely good ideas to be found on the album. Yet there are still signs of the band trying to ride on the success of the first album and need to instead evolve and progress as a new-born three piece.
