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First Impressions: Interpol - Our Love To Admire

OK, so my co-host Tim and I just got done watching A Mighty Heart (review to come tomorrow morning) and after an embarrassing realization that I forgot to validate the parking and finally got us out of the garage, I turned on Q101, Chicago’s alternative rock station and heard a voice that sounded shockingly similar to Paul Banks from Interpol. This wasn’t “The Heinrich Maneuver,” which has been in regular rotation since early May much to mixed impressions in my head. No, this was “Pioneer to the Falls,” the first track off the recently leaked forthcoming album Our Love To Admire. Holy sh*t.

Ryan Manno, Q101’s late shift DJ, was playing Our Love during his regular segment “Crash Test Radio,” in which he usually plays B-sides and rarities from the bands we know and love. Usually people can call in and request during this slot, but tonight was all Interpol, apparently. Some may recall that Q101 recently got in some beef with Jack White for playing Icky Thump some 2-3 weeks before it was released. You can hear a transcribed version of the phone call White made to the studio here (Jack White is portrayed by DJ Tingle doing his Chris Rock impersonation). Ballsy for them to do this again, but hey, they got away with it before.

As far as the album itself goes, I’m no longer worried about it. I was openly underwhelmed with “The Heinrich Maneuver” on a recent episode of our podcast, but hearing the song and how it plays into the rest of the album, it actually sounds better when you hear it in context. This is definitely a polished album. Interpol is quoted as saying they wanted to be more “expressive” with Our Love and it seems to come through. All the same Interpol magic is still there: there’s still the heavy drum fills that can fill an arena; there’s still the walking bass lines that more often than most any other band overpower the guitar; Banks’ voice still has the echo effect used to highlight the band’s stream-of-consciousness vibe. Tracks like “Rest My Chemistry” and “Pioneer to the Falls” have incorporated the keyboard, but this isn’t entirely new area for Interpol. 2004’s Antics opened with the cryptic keyboard on “Next Exit.”

From what I could tell there seems to be themes of death, love, and sex but anything more than that, I simply can’t say. I’m glad I only heard it once, though, because now I know what I have to look forward to (and I couldn’t stick around to hear the last two songs). Besides, when the album finally drops it’ll be nice to hear in crystal clarity and without commercials and pseudo-interesting DJs interrupting the album between tracks. No offense Manno–Jesus could’ve risen again, decided to choose Q101 to make his returning statements, and I still would’ve been pissed.

Our Love To Admire will be out in stores July 10th (the 9th if you’re reading this from the UK). We’ll see how Capital Records or the band themselves reacts to Q101’s leaking of the album. My guess is the band won’t mind that much, because hearing this will only persuade more people to buy the album come next month.

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