Interpol
Our Love to Admire
(10th Anniversary Re-Issue)
Drop the needle into the desiccated groove of the opener, Pioneer to the Falls, from the the tenth anniversary reissue of Interpol's commercially larger Our Love To Admire and here comes the guitar instantly reminding you that despite that some would have their antecedents wearing thin their tailored sleeves, from that New York moment in time, beginning around the turn of the century, on, Interpol did something pretty cool, pretty laconic, pretty epic and relatively unique.
I must say that I don't exactly understand the music business these days, possibly since I became Ancient, so while I wonder why a tenth anniversary reissue of a maddeningly middlingly acclaimed record seems like a pretty quick turnaround... Well, let's say these days something ten is still a baby album to me, probably still lying under a seat in the car, so, yeah, Confused, UK. But here it is, reissued and sounding better than I recall.
While its said that Interpol will release an all new album in 2018, maybe re-releasing older stuff is a way to go in the meanwhile. Bands seem to get invariably worse as their careers careen onwards, ever onwards. Listen to the fairly well unlistenable self-proclaimed greatest ever LCD Soundsytem album American Dream, and oh man, I love the idea of grandad rocker James Murphy so much I just googled his net worth ($1.95m or so in 2017 dollars) to make sure that he'll still be alright for a bob or two despite his new record which had me reaching for Sound of Silver soon after hearing it noodle around like a record of mid career suicide Cure outtakes. He'll be okay if he eventually moves to a cheaper city I think. I suppose I should listen to it again.
Meanwhile Interpol's Our Love To Admire 10th Anniversary reissue is packaged with a DVD of a 2007 show from London's Astoria Theatre. That's a pretty big barn which says something about the size of Interpol then. These days? Ally Pally, just last week. So, while they endure, maybe these days the National are wearing their jackets? Not that there's nowt too wrong with the National as someone once inferred to Mr. Lake, that a chorus couldn't put right.
Then again I'd been enjoying Lizzy Goodman's super excellent Meet Me In The Bathroom, a sort of crowd sourced oral history of the aural history of New York around the time Interpol were getting together alongside the likes of Jonathan Fire*Eater, The Strokes, Vampire Weekend, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and way many more (2001-2011) and while the NYC street kicking over the statues excitement is palpable, for the bands,' as Interpol's Daniel Kessler acknowledged, the key to greater success was still a good review in the NME and so early on many New York bands played in the UK and connected with fans here.
Interpol had been with American indie mastodon Matador but by the time of Our Love To Admire, Capitol Records checkbook had stepped up and was doing its S&M (sales and marketing) schtick and the record earned a couple of 40 hits in the UK, Heinrich Maneuver got to number 5 in Scotland. Great songs from the album abound and Rest My Chemistry would surely've been a number 1 had I been in charge.
Like Interpol's peerless debut LP, Turn On The Bright Lights, Our Love To Admire turns out to be really good for driving to in an urban environment at night. And I like that.
