Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stunning, compelling debut, 11 Nov 2002
Popular wisdom says that Interpol are a bunch of Joy Division copyists. Popular wisdom is wrong. If we're talking influences, yes, Joy Division are there - but so are Echo and the Bunnymen, the Chameleons, Teardrop Explodes, Bauhaus and perhaps most neglected of all Magazine. These guys know their New Wave. But they haven't given us a preserved tribute - they've taken the bleak, bracing vision, the wordy and intelligent lyrics and the fusion of electronics and conventional instruments in a distinctive direction themselves. Everything has been assimilated, processed, filtered through a distinctive attitude - and the result is as fresh and compelling an album as I've heard this year. Interpol conjure vast space inside their music, marrying epic guitar to rigorous, almost stifling percussion and keyboards. In the dramatic space between these, twisted lyrics have room to slide into your head.This is powerful stuff. Occasionally, yes, I'll admit it, I find myself thinking that the ghosts of Martin Hannett and Ian Curtis must've been somewhere near the studio, but think of this as a beginning - a jumping-off point from whence Interpol will start producing music of unprecedented subtlety and power. Low spots.... none.
High spots... "Obstacle 2" followed immediately by "Stella Was A Diver and She Was Always Down". If ever an album had a perceptible heart of darkness, these two tracks constitute one. Remarkable, addictive, shiny, deadly, and unmissable.
|
|
|
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
80s doom pop the way you remember it (or not), 14 Jan 2003
So the New Rock Revolution, which has so far managed to effectively recycle late '60s psychedelia and blues, early '70s metal, late '70s punk and early '80s air guitar rock finally reaches the mid '80s and Joy Division, The Psychedelic Furs and Echo & the Bunnymen. Of all the UK-influenced US bands who have crashed our shores in the last 2 years, Interpol are the most English sounding and the ones with the greatest musical depth.In terms of sound, they're closest to the Furs - although the occasional moments of light that cascaded through the Bunnymen's work are present here too, and there are nods back to the grandaddy of them all, Television as well. Yet, for all their repeated chords, strangled vocals, cymbal crashes and sudden silences, Interpol are very much their own band. They manage to sound very much like you imagined your favourite 80s bands sounded before you go back and listen to them again - only to find out that they didn't sound as good as this band do now. Their music is dynamic, heavily layered, and has genuine intelligence and depth and, like many of the best Pavement and Television tracks, their's often have occasional sounds or chords that chime through the darkness and provide a clear focal point for the apparent confusion and fear that reigns elsewhere. The standout tracks are the opener, Untitled, with it's occasional power chord chopping through the gloom, NYC, and Stella was a diver and she was always down - but the whole album is very strong and focussed and works much better as a whole than as individual tracks. It's just a shame the excellent Specialist doesn't appear here. Interpol are as relevant and important to the return of rock as The Strokes and The White Stripes and will be huge in the next two years - buy this record and you'll see why.
|
|
|
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mind blowing debut, 24 April 2004
This album is an incredible piece of work. I first got interested in thisband when I heard the numerous comparisons with Joy Division and they arecertainly not unwarranted. The band have a very similar sound to JoyDivision but I would say they are even better than Ian Curtis' lot! What Ialways found was lacking in Joy Division was really good melody and thatis what Interpol provide so well on tracks like NYC and Untitled. This isdefinitly a very down beat album but at the same time can be veryuplifting (the line in NYC 'It's up to me now, turn on the bright lights'is simply incredible) and this is also another bonus over Joy Division whonever really left their bleak and depressing style.
In short, if you want a simply incredible album that not only providespowerfully haunting melodies but also an amazing sense of hope, whilststill carrying the odd 'rock-out' moment, then buy this album now.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
