It's a well-known fact that at the beginning of the 2000s, we saw a wave of shockingly good, career-defining records from the indie scene that didn't just define the possibility of a garage rock revival, but the shape of indie rock going forward. Bands like The Strokes, The Vines, The Hives, and The White Stripes were the first, but bands like The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, The Arctic Monkeys, and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs weren't far from the punch. But the truly alarming thing was that many of these bands would fail to carry forward their success throughout the rest of the decade, either flaming out, breaking up, or delivering significantly mixed results throughout the next ten years, or at the very least cursed with constant comparisons to their early days that they'd never be able to live down.
And one of the most notable of those bands was Interpol, a New York based indie rock band that exploded into the indie scene with the critically beloved Turn On The Bright Lights and Antics, two records filled with memorably chunky riffs, tight bass work, and great drumming. And yet a shift to a major label brought their 2007 record Our Love To Admire that saw the bass shoved back to a mix that had aspirations to grandness that the band couldn't back up instrumentally and certainly not lyrically. Interpol had always been a band caught between the grand earnest insecurities of teenage dreams and being smart enough to know better, but Our Love To Admire saw them trying on more of an assertive rock star persona and man, did it fit uncomfortably. They left that label for their self-titled fourth album in 2010, and while it did work a little better, it was also a sign that the darkness, rock star gravitas and internal frustrations had taken its toll on the band. Interpol had tackled dark material before, but this was the first time the music had mirrored the subject matter and while it felt cohesive, it was not an album most fans were eager to revisit.
So with the departure of their bassist Carlos Dengler, Interpol managed to pull things together for their fifth album El Pintor, an anagram for the band's name and Spanish for 'the painter'. So, what did the album deliver?
