Our Love To Admire (Remastered) Interpol

• 1Pioneer To The Falls05:43
• 2No I In Threesome03:52
• 3The Scale03:25
• 4The Heinrich Maneuver03:28
• 5Mammoth04:14
• 6Pace Is The Trick04:37
• 7All Fired Up03:35
• 8Rest My Chemistry05:01
• 9Who Do You Think03:13
• 10Wrecking Ball04:34
• 11The Lighthouse05:24
• Total Runtime47:06

Info for Our Love To Admire (Remastered)

Our Love To Admire is at once unmistakably Interpol and undeniably new. The witty and perverse "No I In Threesome" is an upbeat ode to shaking up a staid relationship propelled by Carlos D's peerless bass melody while the tenderly observant "Pace Is the Trick" proves that the band are still the masters of the dramatic – check the painful pause right before the sinfully satisfying return of Sam's thundering drums and Daniel's ringing lead guitar. The band's impressively seductive evolution is obvious all over the record, but never more so than on tracks like "Mammoth," "Who Do You Think" and on the album's lyrical centerpiece, the ghostly "Rest My Chemistry." While Daniel is understandably proud of the song he cautions against reading too much autobiography into its lyrics. "We always leave the interpretation to the listener," he says. "I mean, you shouldn't watch a movie for the first time listening to the director's commentary!" Our Love to Admire closes with "The Lighthouse," a funereal dirge that is among the most unexpected and memorable songs ever recorded by the band. Almost entirely percussion-free, the song is constructed around Daniel's mournful guitar and Paul's sparten lyrics. Not only is it one of their finest moments to date, it provides the album's most goose-bump inducing moment, the very same reflex shivers that make Interpol live shows such an exhilarating experience. As the very last song the band recorded for the album it was, they say, the hardest to play. The hypnotic guitar part was played on a 50-year-old guitar that had toxins on the strings, providing Daniel with a blistering and painful sensation in his fingers. The band weren't even sure the track would make it out of the studio, but once they heard Paul's remarkable vocals they were floored. The song – and the album – doesn’t so much end as it bleeds to a close with a long, echoey coda filled with feedback and strings. A fittingly dramatic end to a stunning and emotional journey. Interpol is back, every bit as good as before but charged with a new spirit, a new direction, a new label and, most of all, a new confidence.

Paul Banks, lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Daniel Kessler, lead guitar
Carlos Dengler, bass, keyboards
Sam Fogarino, drums, percussion

Produced by Rich Costey, Interpol

Interpol
There were no guarantees that Interpol would make another record. Following the departure of bassist Carlos Dengler at the end of sessions for their 2010 self-titled LP and a relentless marathon of more than 200 shows in support of it, the band's remaining members—guitarist Daniel Kessler, singer/guitarist Paul Banks, and drummer Sam Fogarino—took a break for most of 2012. For the first time, they all lived in different cities, providing both geographic and mental distance from all things Interpol.

Technically speaking, all things Interpol began at NYU in 1997, when Kessler recruited Dengler and Banks to form a band. "I didn’t care so much about talented musicians or having similar tastes in music as finding people with a certain sensibility," he remembers. In 2002, with Fogarino on drums, the band signed to Matador and released 'Turn On The Bright Lights,' which Pitchfork named the year's #1 album. Over the next decade, they would go on to release a trio of records that found them cracking the Top 5 on the Billboard 200; earning rave reviews from Rolling Stone to TIME along with performances on Letterman, Conan, Leno, and more; headlining major festivals like Lollapalooza and All Tomorrow's Parties; and touring with iconic bands including U2 and the Cure. They explored side and solo projects during their time apart, but ultimately found themselves drawn back together again, not by any expectations of returning to the studio, but rather by that same unshakable urge that brought them together in the first place, to let the music lead them where it may.

"Paul and I got together for a short spell in August 2012, which was the first foray into seeing if we should do something," remembers Kessler. "We had no plans whatsoever. I certainly didn't have anything in my brain saying we had to do this. It was just us playing music to see if there was something there."

It quickly became apparent that there was indeed something there, something urgent and compelling, something revitalized and reenergized by their time apart.

"Paul started singing in that first day or two, which is great, because it doesn't always happen like that," remembers Kessler, who composes much of the music. "I think he had the chorus melody for 'My Desire' right off the bat, so there was this good energy. It felt very exciting, like this was the beginning of something."

Those hot August days spent sweltering in an AC-less rehearsal space belonging to fellow NYC band Battles proved to be the birthing ground for 'El Pintor,' Interpol's fifth and most exhilarating studio album. It's a driving, relentless record, taut and epic in equal measure. It's also an album of firsts.

"Carlos was a gigantic part of our band, and he contributed greatly to our records," Kessler explains. "So recording without Carlos was definitely a change. But we didn’t spend much time thinking about it, we just closed our circle and dealt with what was on the table."

That meant Banks stepping in to write and perform the bass parts for the first time.

"[Playing bass] came up organically as a result of having writer's block when I was working with Daniel with just a guitar," Banks told Rolling Stone. "He was playing me the music he'd written, and a lot of these chord progressions are open to interpretation in terms of music theory, and I found it very difficult to get any ideas on guitars or vocals. We had three rehearsals booked, and it was like, 'We're not doing anything because I can't think of anything on guitar, so either we cancel this or I bring a bass tomorrow and see what happens.' I brought a bass the next day and we were off and running. We wrote, 'Anywhere,' which is a pretty big song on the record, the following day."

With Banks on bass, "the songs started growing in identity," explains Kessler, who frequently found exciting and unexpected counterparts to his guitar riffs in Banks' bass lines during those early writing sessions. "It was sort of like a new band in that sense."

Fogarino joined rehearsals later, adding his resolutely tenacious percussion to the arrangements Kessler and Banks had worked up, and he immediately found himself surprised by what he heard.

"Daniel and Paul had been hashing out some stuff and had early arrangements when I came in," remembers Fogarino, "and within that week we had maybe three rough recordings of the songs. The fidelity wasn’t so good, but the performances were, and that was the first time it was just the three of us. It became apparent at that moment that this is what happens when you're a band for over ten years. I wasn’t expecting to be taken aback by it, but the marked change by our abilities as a band kind of punched me in the face. Just jumping into the fray not knowing what they'd been doing, that spoke volumes about how it's meant to be, how right we are together."

Recorded at the legendary Electric Lady Studios and the brand new Atomic Sound in NYC, 'El Pintor' kicks off with "All The Rage Back Home," a song that was actually born on the final day of the band's last tour, as Kessler stood on a balcony overlooking Buenos Aires. It's likely no coincidence, then, that the song signals a return to what Interpol does best, layering pulsing bass, bursts of guitar, and driving drums beneath Banks' instantly recognizable voice.

"My Desire" fell into place almost instantly during rehearsals with a throbbing beat and insistent guitar riffs that shoot off like flares into the night, while "Same Town, New Story" took on an entirely new identity in the studio, as Banks crafted up an unexpected melodic context for Kessler's laser-sharp guitar lines.

Lyrically, there's an air of darkness that weaves its way throughout the record. "This kind of shit don't heal in a week," Banks sings on "My Blue Supreme," and titles like "Twice As Hard" and "Everything Is Wrong" hint at a struggle for acceptance during difficult times, to not be "beaten by the weight of it," as he laments on "Ancient Ways."

In contrast with previous records, Interpol took a step back on 'El Pintor' and "let the songs happen," as Fogarino explains, embracing the patience it took to see where the music would lead them in its own due time. There may not have been any guarantees that they would record again, but the result is as accomplished and thrilling a collection as the band has ever released.

This album contains no booklet.