Interpol Our Love to Admire:B

For those of you who aren't familiar with Interpol yet: skip reading this review and simply get a copy of their 2002 debut Turn On The Bright Lights. It's one of this decade's best alternative albums and, really, a sort of time capsule for the period immediately following the September 11 attacks. (Note: if you're a Joy Division fan, ignore the claims that Interpol sounds "just like them" -- instead, expect something more akin to Ian Curtis fronting a "shoegaze"-influenced outfit with arena aspirations.)\nNow, for fans, your reaction to Our Love To Admire is going to depend on what you thought of 2004's Antics. If you liked Antics, or were introduced to Interpol via Antics, Our Love is going to seem rather monochrome and dull. However, if you were disappointed by Antics, Our Love will seem like a return to Interpol's Bright Lights form (if not quite as good).\nOur Love resurrects Bright Lights' chilly, expansive sound -- if anything, Our Love, rather than Antics, seems like the immediate follow-up to Interpol's debut. No upbeat "Slow Hands" here -- the darkness is back, and it feels good (or, that is, feels bad in a good way). Our Love is also more consistent than Antics, and the lyrics, while opaque as usual, hold none of that album's notorious clunkers (such as the "I make money like Fred Astaire" line in the song "Take You On A Cruise," for example).\nBut Our Love never matches Antics' high points either. The album is one long, slow burn, with no songs as memorable as "Evil," "NARC" or "Slow Hands" -- much less the fantastic tracks from Bright Lights. \nNevertheless, repeated listens reveal plenty of fine moments. Besides its hooks, "No I In Threesome" is a wonderfully cheeky number about convincing a reluctant partner to, well ... guess. "Heinrich Maneuver" boogies vigorously and carries some small hints of R.E.M. "Mammoth" has absolutely towering instrumentals, which should help justify my "shoegaze" claim above. And "All Fired Up" is a great little anthem complete with a fist-pumping chant ("I'll take you on!"). \nThe rest is never bad -- just not that exciting.