First two albums are great. Lost it a bit with the third, simply cause I’d already got (in part via them) into so much other stuff by that point - and also I always felt the production underplayed the best element of their sound, Carlos D’s bassplaying.
They’re a band I still have a soft spot for, esp as one of those early faves / gateway bands. Still great live too based on seeing them at that the Cure thing. Hearing the TotBL songs there was a fkn trip
One of the great bands of “our” generation. Their debut is a sontewall classic, an album that floored me when I heard it. The follow up was exactly what was expected, and has some of the best singles in their career.
The thing is there’s a false narrative with Interpol. Many believe they’ve been terrible since their debut, and bemoan their work, but I disagree massively. Anytime I’ve gone back to either Our Love to Admire, Interpol, El Pintor, or the recent Marauder, there is a lot of great songs and a real sense of strong style and aesthetic.
The thing is they will always be coloured by that huge first spark of an album. It is like they’ve been sunk by their own incredible success and that’s been an issue. It reminds me of someone like Mogwai, who have done amazing debut work, but their middle career stuff is so consistently great and above the cut, the only reason it’s consdiered “bad” is the consistency and the shadow their debut is casting across everything else.
I reckon El Pintor is one of the best things they’ve done.
I only have the Marauder album (the production on this is AWFUL) and have heard a good few singles over the years. Pretty good band. 3 (three) out of five (5)
Love all the praise that Turn On The Bright Lights gets on here.
Only seen them once live at a festival, where they didn’t want to be there/thought they were too cool to be there. Never been more bored watching a band. Maybe I’m being unfair, maybe the aloof-not-engaging-or-even-acknowledging-the-audience thing is their schtick. Almost baled out halfway through to go and watch the Scissor Sister instead, to give you an impression of the extent of my plight.
Good band, but not a great one. The quintessential 3 band for me. I kind of missed them when TOTBL dropped, unsure why, so it was the Antics singles that really pricked my ears up. But I’ve never been totally sold. They haven’t put out a total duffer of an album, but they really have struggled to live up to that early promise.
Also:
Use of Untitled in Friends=BAD because it signified the start of the Joey/Rachel relationship storyline.
Use of My Desire for the Champions League final montage=GOOD because Liverpool won.
Alright, got 1.5 decent albums, though I’m not convinced those are as good as I thought they were when I was 15. The idea of TOTBL being one of the best albums of the 00s feels a bit laughable in hindsight. Worse than Jay-Z, worse than The Strokes, worse than Belle and Sebastian, rubbish live.
