Interpol, "Antics"

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I loved the first album unashamedly but this one is lackluster to say the least. It seems that they lost all the power that made them so much fun the first time.

Already deleted from my ipod.

― hector (hector), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 02:42 (nineteen years ago) link

#15 debut

― Mike Ouderkirk (Mike Ouderkirk), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 03:25 (nineteen years ago) link

It would have been higher if fucking half the chart wasn't new releases (the christmas season is a GLUTFEST this year, musicwise)

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 03:39 (nineteen years ago) link

Wow, Mikael Wood (who I used to read in UR Chicago) has assimilated Village Voice style -- which sounds like I'm being snarky, but I'm not: it's an example of that style done well.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 04:56 (nineteen years ago) link

I really quite like it. Particularly Next Exit and Evil.

― coco, Wednesday, 13 October 2004 10:30 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm kinda amazed that there are so many people who like Bright Lights but not Antics, especially since Antics is far more consistent and has much catchier songs. But then, I guess most people don't go to Interpol for catchiness so much as atmosphere.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 11:01 (nineteen years ago) link

The guys voice resembles Gord Downey to such an extent on the new album I've forgotten how much like Joy Division it all sounds like. Now I just keep hearing Day For Night.
Curses on whoever pointed this out to me.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 13:37 (nineteen years ago) link

I agree with Matthew that the new album is more consistent than Turn On The Bright Lights. There's some duff songs on there though. The lyrics --phew! I'm amazed at some of the clunkers! Half of the fun in listening to the album is thinking, "Did he really sing that?!?" But overall, it is atmospheric but catchy.

― righteousmaelstrom, Wednesday, 13 October 2004 14:39 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah, it's not perfect - I usually turn off the album after "Public Pervert," but I think it's really solid up to that point. The lyrics are just really weird and baffling in a way which isn't cool or clever a la Wu-Tang/Pavement/The Fall etc. The grammar and syntax is bizarre for the most part. I'm not sure if the lyrics are meant to be linear, though there are definitely evocative lines here and there which do get across the emotional content fairly well.

"Evil" has a few great lines. So does "Narc."

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 15:07 (nineteen years ago) link

If you're turning it off after "Public Pervert" you're missing out on one of the best songs on that album: 'C'Mere.' Even with the unfortunate mention "little girl," I love the chorus with its four on the floor drumming and the left channel guitar (Daniel Kessler's?) octaves. There's also some nice arpeggiation in the last verse.

― righteousmaelstrom, Wednesday, 13 October 2004 16:07 (nineteen years ago) link

Mikael Wood's rveiew in The Voice was really nicely written. Makes it sound smart, saucy and "spindly." Guess I'll get this one.

― ian g, Wednesday, 13 October 2004 21:18 (nineteen years ago) link

keeps growing on me.

― Hari Ashurst (Toaster), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 21:25 (nineteen years ago) link

after listening to the album for the last week or so, the opening track is still the best song on it. "Be My Baby" drumbreak + "Hold Me Tight" chord progression + U2 style chiming guitars + kinda crap lyrics, still (surprisingly) = great tune. "Slow Hands" is completely tuneless, I'm amazed that's the lead-off single. I enjoy the record as long as I don't really pay attention to what he's singing or the fact that every song has the exact same vocal rhyme cadence. But I honestly can't separate it from Bright Lights - all the songs sound interchangeable to me (this is not a bad thing - I enjoy minimalist aesthetics). I don't hear any real development or progression from the last album. Seems to me if you enjoyed one you'd enjoy the other, they're like mirror images.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 13 October 2004 21:26 (nineteen years ago) link

I finally bought the album, and I'm still letting it sink in. To my ears, none of the other songs are as engaging as "Evil" (which is perfect) , but I've not given up on the record yet. I'll report back to this thread in another week or so.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, 15 October 2004 13:13 (nineteen years ago) link

Like it. Like the way the drums sound. If the drums sound whack, I'm gone.

The guitars are, indeed, quite spindly.

― ian g, Friday, 15 October 2004 20:21 (nineteen years ago) link

Would I like this?

I'm considering getting it coz of a Philistines Jr link.

I found their first album to be pretty boring, perhaps I should have listened to it more than a couple of times.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 29 October 2004 17:53 (nineteen years ago) link

So two weeks have gone by, and I'm a little disappointed to say that nothing else on this record speaks to me like "Evil". Oh well.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, 29 October 2004 17:56 (nineteen years ago) link

Somone gave this to me for my birthday. Listened to it once and can't imagine ever needing to listen to it again.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 29 October 2004 18:45 (nineteen years ago) link

I kinda doubt Interpol will ever do another song as good as "Evil." They have other good songs and I'm sure they will make more, but nothing like that.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Friday, 29 October 2004 18:47 (nineteen years ago) link

Not very impressed after the first listen. I liked Bright Lights a lot, but this one strikes me as too similar (I expected a bit more of a progression) and with possibly weaker songwriting overall. Not terrible, but definitely disappointing and not something that makes me want to listen again.

― sleep (sleep), Friday, 29 October 2004 19:03 (nineteen years ago) link

I don't get the "weaker songwriting" thing at all - everything on Antics seems pretty accomplished to me, whereas half of their first album barely felt like songs.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Friday, 29 October 2004 19:12 (nineteen years ago) link

In contrast, I wasn't impressed after the first listen or so, but haven't stopped listening to it since (now a month after its commercial release).

I won't suggest it's as end-to-end solid as "...Bright Lights" but it certainly provides Interpol with enough mid- and uptempo tracks to keep a concert, and fans thereof, chugging along.

Equal to or better than "Evil" :: "Not Even Jail" | "Take You On A Cruise" | "Slow Hands"

― nader (nader), Friday, 29 October 2004 19:23 (nineteen years ago) link

end-to-end solid

Can be interpreted as monolithic.

― nader (nader), Friday, 29 October 2004 19:24 (nineteen years ago) link

I saw them a few nights ago. That Crispin Glover bassist guy totally swears.

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Friday, 29 October 2004 19:25 (nineteen years ago) link

end-to-end solid

Can be interpreted as monolithic.

Because it's really pretty boring. If I want "disciplined" songcraft I'll listen to Beethoven or some shit. Fuck boring NY hipster-yuppie
bullshit.

― sinclair, Friday, 29 October 2004 19:27 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah! FUCK IT!!

― Turd Sandwich (nader), Friday, 29 October 2004 22:25 (nineteen years ago) link

I like c'mere. The verses rock. Not the lyrics, but the expression.

Evil is good, everything else is like the worst songs of bright lights.

maybe they were on drugs when they wrote the lyrics? nirvana had sick lyrics and they were nonsensical. but these are just lame. maybe they should get into heroin.

I wish they'd do a radiohead and get into electronic sounds.
or do a sonic youth and do something interesting with their guitars.

― Anko (Anko), Sunday, 31 October 2004 01:57 (nineteen years ago) link

three years pass...

still stands up.

― pisces, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 07:57 (sixteen years ago) link

SO SHIT

― wilter, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 08:04 (sixteen years ago) link

Pisces you were right and then you were wrong.

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 14:51 (sixteen years ago) link

four years pass...

definitely a classic album, just as good if not better than bright lights. so sad how they lost the plot after '05. olta and s/t have some good songs but are bogged down with mediocre trash, questionable production, and an encroaching cheesiness. they still RAWK live though. i think they'll make another record

― yellow jacket (spazzmatazz), Monday, 25 March 2013 20:46 (eleven years ago) link

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