New York’s gloomy post-punk finest have just given those without tickets to Splendour In The Grass another reason to be envious.
Interpol have unleashed the second taste of their forthcoming fifth album, in the shape of ‘All The Rage Back Home’ which opens the anagram-titled El Pintor – and it’s a glorious bait-and-switch.
Beginning with a lacerated guitar melody from Daniel Kessler and the trademark foghorn vocals of frontman Paul Banks, it seems like overly familiar Interpol territory. But just when it seems like the track is resigned to a maudlin mid-tempo, in crashes drummer Sam Fogarino to crank the BPM, bringing along some revivifying wall-to-wall rhythm guitar.
The song arrives complete with a classy black-and-white video co-directed by Paul Banks, intercutting footage of the besuited trio tearing through their new track with surfers cresting (or being dumped) by breaking waves. Following on from ‘Anywhere’, it shows that sounds are shaping up nicely for Interpol’s first LP in four years – if a little predictably.
That being said, the guest roster for El Pintor (out 5th September via [PIAS]) promises some interesting u-turns: enlisting the likes of Brandon Curtis (The Secret Machines), keys player Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. (Beck and Air’s guy) and multi-instrumetnalist Rob Moose (whose CV includes Bon Iver and The National). Maybe the Splendour audiences can tell us what we’ll expect from the NYC trio’s newer material and live show…
