Interpol - Marauder (August 24, 2018)

oof, "Number 10" is *not* good.

for posterity:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy2Si-HvMZ0

that's a radio edit, all that's up on youtube now. both versions on spotify. yeah, it's not good. they are very much going for an arena rock thing, but it sounds so generic. also, is it just me or is this mix fucking horrible? it sounds like a 5th generation leaked mp3.

This new one sounds like a corny apocalypse.

Yeah, it’s got St. Anger style production. Which could be ok if there was a tune there

St. Anger sounds so much thicker than that. Maybe just the song - The Rover sounded fine.

and yeah, it would work if there was a tune there. lots of interesting production choices on the first two records, Paul's voice is super distorted on Obstacle 1 & Roland.

btw I found these a while ago and they are so cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeC83cUhtjI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1Wx5DjG80s

why would I want to listen to the worst parts of those songs in isolation?

i've never seen that spelling of "best" before

Hey I don't mind the new song.

Third single, with a video featuring Kristen Stewart. My favorite of the singles so far. Album is out at midnight, I guess. Excited for a new Interpol record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLk8i2zw2jU

man idk, this album is doing nothing for me. I hate the sound and Paul's vocals sound like scratch demos at times.

Yep same. There used to be a warmth to his vocals and now they just sound wrecked, dare I say unpleasant.

there's a piece in Noisey I think where Paul ranks the albums based on how difficult/stressful they were to make. He confirms something I've always suspected: he refers to his vocals on Antics and Bright Lights especially as the sound of "someone who can't really sing." He got voice lessons during the making of OLTA after he wrote No I in Threesome and couldn't sing it consistently. Ever since then he's been all nasal and the beautiful sound of his untrained voice from the first two records is gone forever. The loss of Paul's baritone was a much more significant blow to the band than the loss of Carlos imo.

flappy, that anecdote also reminds me of early roxy where bryan ferry was untrained as a vocalist and became much cleaner-smoother over the course of their career. Also John Frusciante, but his singing did not change dramatically, just less raw

funny, I think he sounds better on this album than the last several and the songs are more tolerable too. Only one listen so far but it seemed like their best album since the debut.

he beautiful sound of his untrained voice

lol wut

I wouldn't trade Simon Le Bon for anybody but no way would I ever call what he does in Jran Jran an example of beauty.

i know you don't like them very much alfred but i do find Banks' singing & lyrics on those first two records transcendentally beautiful, and even after 10+ years of listening to them regularly, i still find myself overwhelmed by NYC, The New, Not Even Jail, Evil, PDA, and on and on and on...

lol I can think of few clumsier lyricists

I understand that completely, but for whatever reason he's my core, my heart music.

OLTA is the best album with the best singing and what seems to be the best sounding studio for them (electric lady)

If you listen to olta and then switch to antics, the band sounds like they're playing inside a cardboard box in the latter

Otm

As I’ve said before the first side of the s/t is great, esp. Summer Well & Barricade. The production is good on that one. Totally lost me with El Pintor.

a different interview, but the same anecdote about his voice and "No I in Threesome":

Has your relationship to your voice changed over time?
Yeah.

How so?
Although I respected singers when I was starting out, it wasn’t what I considered myself to be. I came from a school of thought where like, Bob Dylan’s a writer, not a singer. Leonard Cohen’s a writer. Even Neil Young I’d put into that, or Beck. And those are all people who are my favorites. And then you get your sort of classically singing approach to vocals, and I would say, “Okay, that’s Céline Dion.” And I’m not that, I’m over here. I’m just some guy who yells and has lyrics.

But by the time we got to the third record I wrote a song called “No I in Threesome,” and in it are these weird intervals. So we’d be in rehearsal, and when I wrote the melody, I could sing it. I wouldn’t write something that isn’t in my range. But I’d find that by the third time we did the song, I couldn’t sing it anymore. Or the next day I’d get to rehearsal and say, “I can’t sing that song. It’s so weird, what’s happening?” So I spoke to producer Rich Costey and he said, “You should go see this voice coach, Ron Anderson in L.A.” And I went to see this dude, and it’s been a very rewarding relationship that I’ve had with him all these years. I’m more of a trained singer; I’ve got five extra notes at the top of my range.

But I feel like I went to it in a very organic way, and I stand by it: which is I wrote something that I couldn’t sing, and so voice training helped me to learn to get over these obstacles and free me up to write more adventurous melodies. Which is something I’m inclined to do, or I would have never had that problem. If I was comfortable staying in the limited range I had, I never would have written “No I in Threesome.” Obviously I was trying to go places.

Anyway, then I maybe went in directions where I was in love or discovering sort of a higher register, and now I’m in a place where I remember that I like the baritone aspect of my voice. And now I feel I have a broader spectrum of things I can choose from as a singer, and I’m kind of enjoying exploring the breadth of that. In a nutshell, yeah, I think I’ve changed a lot as a singer. Even in the sense that I take myself more seriously or try and approach it as a singer. Which I literally didn’t even do before.

http://www.vulture.com/2018/08/interview-paul-banks-of-interpol.html?utm_source=fb&utm_campaign=vulture&utm_medium=s1

Then Ron Anderson has a lot to answer for.

If you listen to olta and then switch to antics, the band sounds like they're playing inside a cardboard box in the latter

― for i, sock in enumerate (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, August 24, 2018 12:08 PM (six days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idgi, i love the sound of antics

it sounds narrower than olta but this is a narrow band

I just listened to OLTA for the very first time. I don't get the hate. This is pretty good. I like about 2/3rds of Marauder too.

the only problem i have with olta is that the chorus of "all fired up" is too boring for the rest of the song. otherwise it's my second favorite interpol record

"no i in threesome" is also weirdly my mom's favorite interpol song

Mom rock

"who do you think" is the hidden gem on olta. gets stuck in my head all the time, don't even remember the last time I listened to it (just sold my OLTA vinyl reissue).

I misread Sufjan's post a few days ago - I think the opposite is true. Antics sounds so much fuller, wider. OLTA is the one that sounds tinny and compressed/scooped. for the most part the songs are good though, but also a lot of mediocrity on there, I agree completely with you Brad re: "All Fired Up." also "Pioneer to the Falls" is fine but feels like a forced epic. "No I in Threesome" is the only song that benefits from OLTA's trebly production imo, always loved the piercing intro.

i get feeling that "pioneer" is forced but it's so lovely still. here comes the falls....

"mammoth," "pace is the trick," and "rest my chemistry" are basically my favorite interpol songs

they opened with "pioneer" when i saw them in vegas months before olta came out, i think that's part of why i love it so much

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/interpol/2007/the-joint-at-hard-rock-hotel-las-vegas-nv-2bd7dc4a.html

was a great show but also i've never felt the need to see them live again

Killer setlist! Kinda short though. Bummed I never got to see them live with Carlos. although the 2011 show I saw was great, leaned heavily on the first two records & best of the s/t: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/interpol/2011/930-club-washington-dc-bd34952.html

Kinda short though

maybe that setlist incomplete, it certainly didn't *feel* that short. they didn't have an opener at that show either, just a dj playing she wants revenge songs

Mammoth is such a great song.

xpost : re SWR : could it have been the bloke from SWR in his DJ mode ?

If you listen to olta and then switch to antics, the band sounds like they're playing inside a cardboard box in the latter

― for i, sock in enumerate (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, August 24, 2018 12:08 PM (six days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idgi, i love the sound of antics

― princess of hell (BradNelson), Thursday, August 30, 2018 6:20 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it sounds narrower than olta but this is a narrow band

― princess of hell (BradNelson), Thursday, August 30, 2018 6:38 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

For example, I think that 'No I In Threesome' and 'Evil' are great songs. 'Evil' tends to have less going on at a given moment, but somehow sounds more crowded, and the vocals get more easily lost.

which just makes 'Evil' a less exciting song for my ears. I'd have a hard time taking "this is a bad sounding songs band" as a good reason for preferring the other sound.

but I actually do know what you mean, I just think it applies better to TotBL alone

I don't know listening to this and El Pintor just make me really depressed. Believe me I'm trying

Really awesome 2.5 hour interview with Sam from a few months ago, on a drummers' podcast. Lots of info about inter-band dynamics, how they write, touring, gig prep, drum tech nerd stuff... they also go through Obstacle 1 like 30 seconds at a time and break it all down. So great: https://soundcloud.com/phil-smith-592966725/episode-99-interview-sam-fogarino-of-interpol

I haven't found anything -- not a thing -- on this new record that I like.

I like the bookends. Nothing in between has hit me yet.

the new single sounds like what I imagined "Dave Fridmann producing Interpol" would sound like, and I like it more than most of the album

Weirdly I don't think this from the Marauder sessions - at the very least it was mixed separately / later on. Damn though. Really good song, maybe I'm just excited to hear them trying something new, with Paul's heavily distorted vox. Song goes a lot of places.

hello simon and brad, new ep

Interpol Announce 'A Fine Mess' EP out May 17

1. Fine Mess
2. No Big Deal
3. Real Life
4. The Weekend
5. Thrones

I was wrong, all these songs were recorded during the Marauder sessions. apparently they played "Real Life" a lot during the TOTBL anniversary tour.

PR:

Recorded during time spent in upstate New York with Dave Fridmann, the five songs that make up A Fine Mess gradually emerged as a body of work with a narrative and flow unto itself. The title track, and BBC 6 Music-playlisted single ‘Fine Mess’, then received further production from Kaines & Tom A.D. and mixing from Claudius Mittendorfer, who had first worked with Interpol as engineer on Our Love To Admire. The resulting set is a living, breathing postcard from the band to their fans as they tour the world throughout 2019, and a linear continuation of the visceral and contagious energy set loose with Marauder.

Echoing its title, the artwork for A Fine Mess is illustrated by a series of lost images, recovered from an abandoned police station in Detroit, MI. In a crumbling evidence room – amongst the rubble – an undeveloped roll of film, dated “1-20-96”, featured latent images of a breaking and entering scene, the rooms in chaos.

From the beguiling refrain of the title track, to the soulful topsy-turvy of ‘No Big Deal’, cathartic chorus of long sought-after live favourite ‘Real Life’, anthemic swell of ‘The Weekend’, and angular shades of ‘Thrones’, A Fine Mess is a bracing and distinct entry in Interpol’s oeuvre.