Seven albums in, and The Other Side of Make-Believe is the first album that sounds like “Interpol-by-numbers.”
Interpol have been an indie rock fixture for a full two decades now. While it’s tempting to think of the band solely as a brooding post-punk act that seldom escapes the pall cast by frontman Paul Banks’ low monotone, that wouldn’t be accurate. Sure, Interpol’s legendary debut Turn on the Bright Lights and their much-less acclaimed 2010 self-titled album were dark and gloomy, but they showed a noticeably sunnier side with Antics and El Pintor. Our Love to Admire brought synthesizers to the mix, and most recently, 2018’s Marauder showed the band could rock out. Suffice it to say, Interpol are not a one-note band.
Unfortunately, The Other Side of Make-Believe is a one-note album. Like many releases from the past year or two, Interpol wrote the album while geographically separated due to COVID, and it really shows. Seven albums in, and The Other Side of Make-Believe is the first album that sounds like “Interpol-by-numbers.”
Now, Interpol have developed a distinctive sound over the years, which is certainly an accomplishment, but the tracks on The Other Side of Make-Believe sound like they were written by an AI algorithm that listened to and analyzed everything Interpol released – like an audio version of the visual program Dall-e Mini/Craiyon. When “Fables” opens with Daniel Kessler’s trademark plucked guitar tones, the same ones we’ve heard since “Narc” on Antics, it marks the track as an unmistakable Interpol effort, providing a familiar sense of comfort. Yet the following tracks “Into the Night” and “Mr. Credit” begin with these same guitar sounds. By the time you hear them again on “Renegade Hearts,” “Greenwich,” and “Go Easy (Palermo),” it’s borderline farcical. It also doesn’t help that the guitar seems to have a fairly overpowering presence on these tracks, drowning out Banks’ subdued vocals and the other rock instrumentation. Drummer Sam Fogarino played an outsized role in the more intense tracks on Maurauder, but with few exceptions (such as “Renegade Hearts” and “Passenger”), he keeps the tracks more even-keeled this time around. With little to distinguish most tracks from one another, things start to blend together real fast on The Other Side of Make-Believe.
If The Other Side of Make-Believe had a saving grace, it would be the tracks that heavily incorporate piano into their melodies. Coincidentally, this includes the album’s first two singles, “Toni” and “Something Changed.” “Toni” opens the album by building tension with alternating high and low piano notes, while Banks sings “Flame down Pacific highway/Still in shape, my methods refined.” There’s also a nice instrumental break just about halfway through that really lets the piano interlace with Fogarino’s drumming, and it establishes a sense of intrigue that unfortunately does not last throughout the album. The four repeated piano chords of “Something Changed” give it an ominous feel, buoyed by Banks’ cryptic admission “I waded through shame for this.” Interpol have featured piano in the past, most notably on their self-titled album, but it was used primarily for added effect on these past tracks. Here, piano serves as the tracks’ foundations, and Banks said while recording “Toni” he had to decide: “Are we going to make this a rock song? Is this going to have electric bass and electric guitar?” Be glad that the band overcame any potential hesitancy over including these piano-centric tracks, since they’re the highlight of The Other Side of Make-Believe.
It’s hard to be too negative about The Other Side of Make-Believe, since Banks meant for the album to have “more of an optimistic, airy, hopeful and anthemic quality at times than any of our previous work.” It does have a “breezier” feel to it, and the track “Gran Hotel” pays tribute to the “streets of Cozumel” in Mexico (the country with arguably the biggest Interpol fanbase). Listeners probably will grasp this general shift in tone, but that’s about the only impression the album will leave.
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