Review:

on 2011-07-28 CharlesMartel Said:

Having been there in person the first time round, I was always a bit nonplussed by the post punk revival which Interpol seem to have led and could even be said to have begun. "Turn on the Bright Lights" gets cited as being one of the best albums of the decade, which is a pretty bizarre thing to say given that the decade was less than 30% complete when it came out. Yet to a generation who had never really heard of Joy Division, that album was their lead into the exciting world of post punk as it should be listened to.

Yet when all is said and done, "Turn on the Bright Lights" was not really the wonderful album it was held up to be. It lacked a certain spark and the band seemed as if they were concentrating too much on form and not enough on substance. I hoped that their second album would see them strike off in a different direction, still retaining the essence of what they had originally modelled themselves on, but staking a claim to newer ground, boldly going where no band has gone before to coin a phrase. "Antics" certainly does that, but the result is not as I would have intended. For a start, Paul Banks (British born, could that be the impetus?) seems to have realised that he does not have to sound like Ian Curtis all the time and as originality is something to be commended, that is a good start. The change quickly becomes noticeable as the somewhat remote and isolated sound which characterised the first album is replaced by a fuller sound. Interpol have indeed branched out and attempted to define their own style, distinct from the Joy Division mimicry which typified "Turn on the Bright Lights".

The album does not seem to get going until the second track, "Evil". Shorter than many of the other tracks, the attempt to provide a catchy rocker somewhat falls flat as it never really delivers what it promises. This is repeated with "Take You on a Cruise" and "Not Even Jail", both of which seem to lose direction and peter out into a different sort of track than what they promised when they began. If failure to live up to initial expectations is one problem, lacking energy is another. Nowhere is this more apparent than "NARC" which should be better than it is. Same goes for "Length of Love" and "A Time to Be Small". The shorter tracks, such as "Slow Hands" and "C'Mere" are more successful but if I were being cruel I would say that they succeed because they do not allow the band time to meander. And then it comes down to the album's standout track in my view, controversially perhaps - "Public Pervert". At times this threatens to meander like many of the others, but it resists the temptation and allows the listener to revel in the thunderous, dark and foreboding riff once it gets started. Easily the highlight of the album, it is perhaps the one track where Interpol show what they are really capable of.

So, would it be true to say that Interpol have suffered from the curse of the second album syndrome? Quite possibly. The album is pleasant enough to listen to but it doesn't hold your attention. It doesn't demand to be listened to in the way that good quality post punk does. In truth, Interpol have delivered an album which seems to aim less towards the indie and more towards the mainstream. I detect the stultifying hand of the record company executive, requiring the band to deliver a pop album. You can just hear the words of the company executive, eyes focused on shareholders' returns, to the producer - "no more of that obscurantist crap that only a few kids with low self-esteem and a bad case of acne are going to listen to. Give me something which sells!" Whether Interpol acquiesced in this will be determined by their third album.
Rating: 6/10