I wasn’t expecting much from the new Interpol album, until I was told I should. For nearly two decades, the magic that made Interpol the indie force that produced two epic albums back to back — Turn on the Bright Lights and Antics — seemed gone for the most part. Sure, there were drips and drabs of delightful tracks over the years, but from beginning to end, not a single album that truly came together.
I’m not a fan of the album title This Mirror Weighs a Ton, but once I got past that, I was intrigued almost instantly. The new record does what you hope any longstanding rock band will do: stay true to themselves while continuing to reinvent and evolve. I think This Mirror Weighs a Ton does that to near perfection. There are enough songs that feel like a throwback to the old days, including “See Out Loud,” “Iron City,” and “Wings of Fire.” All solid tracks. But for this post, I’m deliberately choosing a different type of song: “So Rides the Reindeer.”
There’s a bold experimental swagger on this song — and others on the album — that I haven’t heard from the band since Our Love to Admire. “So Rides the Reindeer” builds an ethereal, atmospheric cloud and then sends waves of psychedelia rippling through it, creating something that feels undeniably Interpol but also unlike anything they’ve done before.
The glitchy, woozy, almost disorienting synth explorations remind me of the experimental arrangements of the Carlos D days. They aren’t simply sitting underneath the guitars or filling out the background; they help shape the song’s personality, pushing it somewhere stranger and way more interesting. This doesn’t sound like a band trying to recreate 2002. It sounds like a band that remembers what made them interesting in the first place and is willing to take another swing at it. Interpol was such a big part of my soundtrack in the early 2000s. And I’m genuinely happy and impressed to see that they’re still taking chances. It’s certainly paying off this time around.
“SO, UNDERSTANDING REPLACES FAITH
DRUNK ON MY PAIN
OH, SURROUND ME.”