LISTEN
Interpol Antics
Certain music makes you want to do certain things. While listening to Neil Young, going camping and wearing flannel seem like a great idea. Kraftwerk makes you want to become a robot, or a computer at the very least. While these are powerful feelings, they can be taken further, and cinema has shown us this. In the movie Strange Days people use illegal virtual reality masks that make them actually feel what they are seeing. I believe Interpol saw this movie and sought to record an album (Antics) based on this principle. The difference however, is in the medium. Strange Days employed virtual reality masks; Interpol makes virtual.reality music. For example, on "Length of Love" you actually feel like you are wearing a three-piece suit while driving a fast car slowly through a big city at midnight. In the rain. Drinking Grey Goose Martinis. And smoking. It's a strange and powerful thing.
So how do they do it? Why, with rock-
'n'roll of course. Riffs and rhythms. In fact, Antics contains one of the most rock'n'roll lyrics of all time, one that describes the album perfectly. On "Slow Hands", Paul Banks and his signature clammy delivery assert that, "You make me want to pick up a guitar / And celebrate the myriad ways that I love you." Guitar and love. It's simple and perfect. Interpol knows this.
Everything that was perfect about Interpol's debut album, Turn On The Bright Lights, is retained on Antics, though more muscular. The fastest pulse of bassist Carlos D. packs more punch, the guitars have greater levity and the drums more bombast. Tracks like "Evil," "Narc" and "C'mere" in addition to having great names are archetypal dark pop: infectious and dangerous. This sophomore album wasn't supposed to live up to its predecessor. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. It's hard to compare flawless albums.
Grade: A
— Dave Ruigh