Through the years of releases that, perhaps, the band didn't even seem fit, Interpol's latest release El Pintor hasn't stumbled to find solid ground. With some positive reception and, echoing the coiffed-punk persona from earlier years, the band is doing just fine.
It didn't come as a surprise that news of the band's upcoming LP was steeped in confusion. With bassist Carlos Dengler having freed the lines that tangled the band for the last few years, how could the group find their footing?
Some words from the band at Wondering Sound prove they were adequately nervous about the impact they were trying to generate from a new disc.
As their self-titled fourth album on Matador was largely considered a massive disappointment, even the band thought they wouldn't get another record to the fore.
But Paul Banks has donned the bass and members Sam Fogarino and Daniel Kessler haven't missed step.
They can, as John Everhart put it, "recapture the dark, severe beauty of their 2002 debut," and El Pintor not-redundantly paints the band in a similar color, of the same imagination conceived in their most-praised album Antics.
New York's seminal underground post-punk group hasn't fallen out of the light just yet. Instead, they are more in-line with their sonic quality than ever before. Meaning: it isn't time to write them off just yet.
