Music Is My Weapon

This is the best of their three albums thus far. A must have if you are an Interpol fan.

Solid album though no songs particularly stood out for me like they did on their two previous albums. Save for the last more ambient sounding song "The Lighthouse", it's pretty typical Interpol: grim, tight, textured, and with Paul Bank's usual oblique lyrics. While they're not really breaking any new ground with this album, if you're already a fan of the band, it's a satisfying record, just not as dramatic or memorable as their others.

Moving up to a major label has hardly lifted Interpol's spirits. This is a good thing. Even with the twisted Wild Kingdom album cover and bassist Carlos Dengler's unexpected Wild West makeover, on its third studio album the black-clad New York quartet still sounds inflexibly menacing, grasping tighter than ever to its doomy post-punk influences and delving further into frontman Paul Banks's emotional unrest. Everything sounds a little bigger and brighter, sure, but at their core songs like "Rest My Chemistry" and "Wrecking Ball" are heroically sinister, goaded on by prickly riffs and slow-bleeding rhythms. The group briefly jumps to life on the buzzing "Heinrich Manouver" and exhibits an unexpected dash of humor on "No I in Threesome," but it's the closing "Lighthouse" that best defines the set--a late-night lament that simply steals away into the dark.