Interpol's 'This Mirror Weighs a Ton' Is the Sound of a Band Deciding to Be Great Again
Interpol have been a going concern for a quarter of a century, which is long enough that a genuinely strong late album registers as a surprise. This Mirror Weighs a Ton, out August 28th on Partisan Records, is one — twelve tracks across fifty-three minutes, and, per NME, the band’s first album recorded in New York City in over a decade. That detail turns out not to be trivia.
The Sonic Breakdown
The Production & Mix
The Low-End: Brad Truax, long a touring member, plays bass here and — NME reports — contributed to the writing of those parts. It matters. The bass on an Interpol record has always been the hinge between Kessler’s guitar figures and Fogarino’s drums, and having the person who plays it also help write it gives the low end an argumentative quality it hasn’t had in years.
The Spatial Dynamics: NME credits production to Andrew Wyatt, formerly of Miike Snow — the only outlet to name a producer, so take it as theirs rather than gospel. What isn’t in doubt is the result. Under the Radar’s Andy Von Pip, scoring it nine out of ten, put it simply: “This is the sound of a band firing on all cylinders.” Juliet Seger sings backing vocals on the title track.
Standout Performance
Paul Banks, who has spent two decades being described as detached and here sounds invested. “See Out Loud,” “Iron City,” “Wounded Soldier,” “So Rides the Reindeer,” “Bird and The Serpent,” “Sudden” — the titles are as gothic as ever, but the delivery has stopped hedging.
Why It’s Certified
NME’s Andrew Trendell called it “arguably their most consistent and satisfying since ‘Antics’,” and across fourteen collected reviews the record sits at an 81 average — NME and Under the Radar both at 90, with Mojo, Uncut, Clash, Slant, The Skinny and AllMusic clustered in the eighties behind them. That’s not a nostalgia bump; that’s a wide, sober consensus that a band twenty-five years in made a very good record. The cover art is by Addie Wagenknecht. Certified great.