Our Love to Admire was one of Webcuts’ favourite albums of 2007. In fact we considered the third album by Brooklyn’s Interpol as their most consistent and fully realised work to date.
Keyboards, once mere adornments, were now fully integrated into the band’s epic songs adding atmosphere and depth. The repetitive yet beguiling guitar licks of Paul Banks and Daniel Kessler reached new highs and of course Carlos D’s thick as molasses bass lines and Sam Fogarino’s snare loving drumming were brilliant as usual. Bank’s vocal performance was also superb, his well delivered lines (and rhymes) making more sense than on previous releases.
Could it get any better? Well yes, actually. This limited edition version of Our Love to Admire, coinciding with their recent Australian tour, adds a bonus DVD — the same that was bundled with UK re-issue from last year. As such the DVD EP features six songs recorded at the London Astoria (a mini best of including “Pioneer to the Falls”, “NARC”, and “Evil”) and the videos for “The Heinrich Maneuver” and “No I In Threesome”. Despite being jerkily edited, the Astoria concert still manages to convey Interpol’s powerful, if somewhat detached, live show and gives front row access to those who may’ve been up the back at their arena gigs.
The clip for “Heinrich” is a strange beast: it’s a bizarre David Lynch inspired, slow-mo/reverse-mo piece, that doesn’t feature the band. It’s completely at odds with the fast paced song but that was probably the point. “No I In Threesome” set in a disintegrating house is a more traditional performance/concept video with a suitably gothic feel. Overall a great album with a nice addendum.
