Interpol’s sixth album Marauder is a blend of their early 2000s heyday and the less angular El Pintor that shows the band evolving with confidence.
It’s always a little sad when bands launch tours promising to play one their earlier releases in its entirety. Sure, it’s a guaranteed crowd pleaser, but there’s a subtext that suggests “we peaked then.”
Last year, Interpol announced such a tour to celebrate the 15th anniversary of their debut Turn On the Bright Lights. If you were around during the early 2000s, you know that this album is definitely worthy of such recognition, and anyone who has ever considered themselves an Interpol fan would be lucky to attend. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine Interpol repeating this for any of their subsequent albums, save maybe for their sophomore effort Antics. The band seemed to be on a gradual decline after Turn On the Bright Lights, and only 2014’s El Pintor managed to slightly curb this trend.
Interpol’s sixth album Marauder continues the band’s resurrection from the nadir of their 2010 self-titled album. Combining the sounds of their early 2000s heyday with the less angular style of El Pintor, it’s a blend of old and new that shows the band evolving with confidence.
Interpol has always excelled at choosing singles from their albums; think of where the band would be without “PDA,” “Obstacle 1,” “Evil,” “Slow Hands,” and “the Heinrich Maneuver.” Yes, I left out anything from their last two albums there, because Marauder gives us the best Interpol singles in a decade. Guitarist Daniel Kessler makes the melody of “The Rover” into an instantly recognizable standout track, one that echoes the garage rock that dominated airwaves during the Turn On the Bright Lights and Antics era. It’s brasher than anything the band have done before, but frontman Paul Banks grounds the track with his trademark cryptic lyricism with lines like “come and see me and maybe you’ll die/but I can keep you in artwork, the fluid kind.” Opening track “If You Really Love Nothing,” is more post-2010 Interpol, with Banks singing in the same falsetto you heard on El Pintor’s “My Blue Supreme” over a shuffling beat. Kessler occasionally comes in to deliver the band’s more familiar stop-and-go guitar, but it’s otherwise a great introduction to a newer, slicker Interpol.
While Kessler and Banks may grab your attention, the unsung hero of Marauder is drummer Sam Fogarino. Listening closely to “The Rover,” he actually gets close to dishing out a drum solo at times, something you’d never expect from the Interpol of yesteryear. “Stay In Touch,” best known as the track where Bank namedrops the titular Marauder three times, ends with an instrumental outro that peters out with only the drums clinging to life. Most interestingly, “Flight of Fancy” has a drumbeat not too dissimilar from Interpol’s first-ever single “PDA.” Both use Fogarino as the engine that pushes the song forward until the drums suddenly cut out, bringing things to a screeching halt. The departure of bassist Carlos D in 2010 caused a noticeable absence in the band’s harmony and rhythm, so it’s crucial that Fogarino fills that void.
The primary fault of Marauder is that it’s a heavily front loaded album. Around the time “NYSMAW” rolls in at its midpoint, things really start to blur. Banks does have one of the most distinctive voices in indie rock, one notable enough for him to land a hip-hop collaboration album with RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, but his baritone often comes off as garbled here, and fails to command attention. Additionally, while much of Marauder shows Interpol leaning heavily into a garage rock style, and they do pull it off well, the end result is too much of a good thing. “Complications” gets away with its jangly guitars and swagger because of its placement earlier in the album, and it’s a refreshing change of pace at first listen. However, by the time you reach the aptly-titled “Party’s Over,” you start to remember that the oversaturation of garage rock revival bands 10-15 years ago gave us “landfill indie,” and it’s hard for one decent rock song with fuzzy riffs to really stand out from the herd. Marauder contains unexpected twists and turns from Interpol, but like a joke told over and over, they lose effectiveness with repetition.
It is quite striking how so many bands and musicians interviewed in Lizzy Goodman’s indie rock chronicle Meet Me in the Bathroom have released albums this year. Like this year’s releases by Franz Ferdinand, Jack White, and Julian Casablancas with the Voidz, Marauder is not going to lead to another great wave of recognition for the musical titans of the early to mid-aughts, although it just might be the best of this pack. Interpol may not dedicate a tour to playing the album in its entirety in the future, but it contains enough standout tracks to make you content with the new Interpol, no longer needing the nostalgia of their past.
Rating: 7/10
You must be logged in to post a comment.