Interpol Paints Over its Past

Of all modern post-punk bands, Interpol has maintained the most distinct style. By turns gloomy and ethereal, they blend shoe-staring pedal distortion, driving bass, and hollow vocals that recall Ian Curtis and Morrissey into one of the most recognizable and virtuosic products of the late 1990s and the 2000s. While many other bands in that decade abandoned themselves to a certain mindless cheerfulness, Interpol stood proudly for unapologetic grimness.  Unfortunately, this woefulness was taken to excess on their fourth album, 2010’s self-titled “Interpol,” which was 46 minutes of unremitting misery, unredeemed by technique or content, and widely considered a step down from their earlier work.

In “El Pintor,” their first release after a four-year hiatus, Interpol delivers a well-made comeback album with the band’s old melancholy but also a fresh new vitality. The name “El Pintor” (Spanish: “the painter”) is an anagram of the band’s name, a device that sets the album in deliberate opposition to “Interpol.” Indeed, it is not too much to say that “El Pintor” is an effort to make right the failings of that album, to be a do-over. To achieve this end, the band has fruitfully returned to the style of their earliest work, especially the more fully developed songs of “Turn on the Bright Lights,” which is deliberately invoked by the similarity of the visuals of the album cover.  However, several innovations have been introduced that put “El Pintor” beyond the level of Interpol’s previous albums.

“El Pintor” begins with the engaging “All the Rage Back Home.” While the song maintains the typical ABAB structure of the band’s work, it happily eschews the crushing monotony that afflicted “Interpol,” favoring a quicker tempo and fuller melody than any of the works on that album. In the verses, Paul Banks’s vocals display a warmer tone than is typical of many of Interpol’s compositions. This welcome diversification recalls the crooning style of David Bowie’s Thin White Duke phase and alternates pleasantly with Banks’s standard nasal punk drone.

The album’s second song, “My Desire,” underlines the fact that the band has lost nothing from the departure of bassist Carlos Dengler, as Banks takes on a rhythmically and melodically sophisticated bass line without any apparent difficulty. “My Desire” especially showcases Daniel Kessler’s fine guitar work, which was largely lost on “Interpol.” In this song especially, Interpol seems to have absorbed much influence from the lighter shoe-staring aesthetic.  Indeed, the feel of “My Desire” is strikingly similar to the aural style showcased on the latest album by The War On Drugs, 2014’s “Lost In the Dream,” perhaps indicating a nascent trend towards ethereal guitar riffs and smooth percussion.

The album’s second single, “Ancient Ways,” while not as pleasant for listening as “All the Rage Back Home,” is perhaps the more daring.  Interpol’s typically oblique lyrics give way to a hard-edged opening that would have made Sid Vicious proud—“Ooh, fuck the ancient ways!”  This declaration of frustration gives way to broken images of urban wastelands, train stations, and pavements interpolated with the first line, recalling nothing so much as a perverse, post-industrial versicle and response. While angst is not new ground for Interpol, such directness of presentation is a recent and interesting development.

It may be said that “El Pintor” is a worthy recovery for one of the finest extant proponents of the post-punk aesthetic. Coupled with a robust touring schedule, this release announces that Interpol is back, serious, and full of original and edifying content to come.

—Staff writer Jude D. Russo can be reached at russo@college.harvard.edu.