Those of you paying attention may remember my worry about Interpol. I wondered whether or not they could withstand any further criticism or shrivel and die. Upon reading the reviews online, I have my answer from all sources.
B. Their slow certain march to oblivion continues.
C. Whoa, this is dreadful. No longer can they show their faces in public, they hide in a basement and discuss what life is like after sucking (get help from the Strokes to deal with Post-Cool)
Sadly, it looks like a little from column B and a little from column C. Pitchfork gave a vicious, brutal review, stating that they sounded burned out and unsure of themselves. They mentioned the latter half of the album being a colossal wreck with little redeeming, and said even the beginning wasn’t very good.
Tiny Mix Tapes, though it gave a similar score, still stated it was better than Our Love to Admire. So they gave it an actual upgrade, stating that this was an improvement but they need to try harder.
Other reviews seem to be forthcoming, possibly waiting to fully absorb the music into its skin.
From what’s out there, it sounds as if Interpol missed its mark. Maybe mope rock just doesn’t have the same staying power it did several years ago. Now we’ve moved onto newer, more nostalgic genres. These genres that we’re told are cool and make us look “with it”. I’m talking about buzz, fuzz, chill, low fidelity, etc. All of those terms just mentioned add points onto your score, not the boring ones like Arena Rock, Indie, Post-Rock, etc. Any references to those latter words automatically force the band to try that much harder to overcome the burnt out feeling so many have towards them.
For what it is worth, Pitchfork did many hatchet jobs that day, also panning a Blonde Redhead album. After a heady summer of promoting summer bands, they realize that a clean break with the past is needed. So those bands they previously fawned over get lower ratings than they would have otherwise. Even keeping in mind that realistically not all of those bands will continue churning out endlessly good products (duds happen) it seems like Pitchfork does tend to cut itself loose as soon as a popular buzzword begins attracting too much scorn and derision among the cool kids.
Pity.