Antics [Slipcase] by Interpol

Pros: awesome music for the most part, trumps their last album
Cons: ONLY 10 SONGS. Some songs not up to par with the rest

Interpol has been one of my favorite bands since i first heard they're debut album, Turn On The Bright Lights. That was an excellent album, very dark and slightly claustrophobic, with clang-y guitars, awesome drumming, and the strange but amazing voice ...

Pros: Solid, catchy, smart, and loyal to their fans
Cons: What next?

Perhaps the four men who were the most surprised by the massive success of "Turn on the Bright Lights" were Paul Banks, Carlos D, Sam Fogarino, and Daniel Kessler. I'm not sure how Interpol expected its debut album to be received. It was dark, but not ...

Pros: Interpol outdo their amazing debut with sublime follow-up
Cons: only 40 mins

After the black-hearted triumph of their debut Turn On The Bright Lights, most pundits assumed Interpol would be unable to keep up the pace on their second album. Bright Lights was in sync with the confused and cheated feelings of modern youth and the ...

Pros: a successful, and equally great, follow-up to "turn on the bright lights"
Cons: one track that doesn't match up to the rest

My friend’s in a band! Yay! Actually, this is nothing unusual; I have lots of friends who are in bands, but unfortunately none of them sound (to my ears, anyway) very good. As a polite way of putting it, the talent:ambition ratio is not very high. ...

Pros: Evil, Narc, and some other new great tracks
Cons: Not as good as Turn on The Bright Lights

Interpol’s Turn on the Bright Lights was an instant classic. One of those CDs that instantly becomes part of your CD player and never leaves. An album that is moody, dark, infectious, innocuous, sublime and delicately temperamental. Antics is not. ...

Pros: Most of the tunes have dark, ethereal beauty, building to an emphatic conclusion.
Cons: Instant tunes such as Slow Hands can grate on the nerves after further listening.

Interpol are somewhat ignored by the monster that is the NME hype machine, however compared to some of the regurgitated indie nonsense that is consuming the charts these unsung New York boys are providing beautiful atmospheric music. Upon discovering ...

Pros: plenty of well-crafted post-punk melodies
Cons: not daring enough, Banks' incessant screaming

I bought it the day it came out: September 28, 2004. I don't often do this for albums. I have bought the last three Radiohead albums on their respective release dates (by "Hail to the Thief," it was more out of curiosity than anything else), but this is ...

Pros: A dark, brilliant album for those dark times in life.
Cons: Length of love is kind of weak.

On first impressions, Antics is an LP that doesn't fair so well. Everything seems like a mire of dark and brooding guitar riffs. However, first impressions can be wrong, and thankfully they are in this case. Antics is a grower of the best kind, an LP that struggles to break out but finally blossoms into something deep, dark, rewarding and downright addictive. An album for those introspective winter evenings, and an LP for those headphone using, pretending to be in the band whilst bouncing round the room thrash sessions alike. There are many feathers to Antics' bow such as the brilliant raw production that wrenches both energy and melancholic tinges from the songs, but the greatest assets are the complicated, obtuse lyrics that are genuinely interesting to those of more learned leanings. Poetic in the extreme, you really have to listen implicitly to extract their meanings, and this LP is all the better for it. Then of course, there is Paul Banks' Ian Curtis like voice, deep and full of unknown sorrow and addictive in it's otherworldly charm. An absolute masterpiece of the highest order.