Having done a bit of Googling, I found a few chat-room\bulletin board\forum arguments about Interpol and whether they were better than or too similar to Editors.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Editors recently and I love their style – listening to them I’m always reminded of just how blown away by the guitar and drums when I saw them live on the End Has A Start Tour.

Yet despite the obvious genius, it was the vocals (not so much the lyrics – The Editors have long been criticized for the weak lyrics) that reminded me of Joy Division. Listening to Interpol the vocals again come up as a main linking aspect.

I loved Antics from the first play, instantly hearing the similarity between both Editors and Joy Division. However Interpol are far more than an ‘American Editors’.

I’ve mostly been listening to the album in car, most albums get their first play in there and if I’m organised (or the car is so untidy it needs a clean) the CDs get taken into the house and copied to the NAS device I’ve dedicated to my ever growing music collection. From there they get put onto the MP3 which allows me to listen to songs in work. However for whatever reason I’ve not been as organised and this album spent a lot of time in the car and never made it to the mp3 player. It’s become a bit of ‘driving album’ not quite background music but something I can listen to without too much thought, I was able to listen to it whilst trying to read an A to Z and work out which road the ‘next left’ actually is.  Antics became a soundtrack to me getting lost around Exeter .

I’ve absorbed it without too much effort.

I like the guitar work on this album, ‘Take You On A Cruise’ is a great example, both guitarists are clear and there is a lot of ‘style’ here. The band knew what sound they were after. The album has a clear definition, there are no weak tracks – even I read an article that summed the album up as half A track and half B track. (AllMusic). Evil, Slow Hands and Narc being the clear stand out tracks.

The best song on the album is Slow Hands – which includes a lyric “you make me want to pick up a guitar” this is exactly what the album does make you want to do. It’s a real gem of an album. Not only is there the best Editors and Joy Division in there, hints of the Strokes (C’mere) and Arcade Fire (Not Even Jail).

I love this album and have started to listen to the first album ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’ and have ordered the other two from Play. I heard Zane Lowe heavily pushing he self titled album a few months ago, I didn’t listen to the live set, but I’m becoming more inclined to go and find it and listen to it as now I’m a big Interpol fan.

Key Track: Slow Hand

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