As dark and stylish as you like, "Slow Hands" is a fine reintroduction to NYC's none-more-moody INTERPOL and their soon-come second album "Antics."
It's got all the hallmarks of a fine single, with assertive, jagged riffing giving way to a typically driving tune with Paul Banks' voice as darkly effective as ever, Carlos D weighing in with some shadowy, counterpoint four-string strategy and Sam Fogarino inserting a hypnotically frenetic disco-pulse of a beat. As ever, Banks is unlucky in love as he smoulders through key lines such as: "Can't you see what you've done to my heart and soul...it's a wasteland now", while the keyboards drift in like December snow from The Urals. You can tell they've just been touring with The Cure, but regardless of that, "Slow Hands" is very much the sound of the gauntlet being thrown down.
A couple more new tracks would have been favourable, but instead Interpol rope in Dan The Automator (Gorillaz, Blues Explosion) and Britt Daniel (Spoon) to rework "Slow Hands" in their own image. Dan The Automator's is the high profile collaboration and his take tweaks up the snare and remodels the track for the dancefloor, though he does ensure the intrinsic brooding quality remains intact. Britt Daniel's, though, is the more sympathetic. Basically, he does a Martin Hannett: dropping the guitars and Banks' vocal back in the mix, accentuating the bass and drums and bringing out the essential funkiness therein. Yes, I did just use 'funkiness' and 'Interpol' in close proximity. Wanna make something of it?
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"Slow Hands", then, is Interpol doing what they do best in big, ultra-moody fashion. I can't imagine we'd want them any other way.
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