Your reviewer still feels slightly hard done by in that he never did get hold of INTERPOL'S recent "Antics" album. Since the time of its' release, he's received numerous recommendations of the record's relative benefits, not to mention several discerning friends suggesting that "C'mere" would make a fine single.
So now this event actually comes to pass, it's not hard to see why the consensus were leaning in this direction, for "C'mere" is a typically dark, soulfully regretful slowburn of a song, with a rueful Paul Banks unleashing his most direct lyric yet (sample: "The trouble is, you're in love with someone else...it should be me") which can't fail to send you into emotional meltdown. Musically, it keeps pace impressively, too: coming over all fierce and disciplined, with Banks and Daniel Kessler's guitars making like an intuitive pincer movement and rhythm section Carlos D and Sam Fogarino as propulsive as hell. It amounts to a track that's deep, dark and sublime and arguably the best single this writer has heard to date from NYC's dapper indie guitar generals.
The excellence doesn't let up there, either, as the band supply us with individual remixes of several of "Antics" finest moments just because....well, because they're talented bastards, basically. Across the formats, you can also get Paul Banks' reworking of "Narc" and Daniel Kessler's version of "Not Even Jail", but I doubt they're better than the renovation jobs inflicted on "Public Pervert by Carlos D and "Length Of Love" by Sam Fogarino.
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With "Public Pervert", Carlos brings in some dancefloor cred, shoehorning the track into a template akin to "Brotherhood"-era New Order. It's stompy, dancefloor-friendly and expansievly melancholic, with that great John Barry-style guitar hook the key to the melody. It's big, beaty and continually evolves. Crucially, it's also very good, which is also the case with Fogarino's radical rethink of "Length Of Love". Brilliantly, he ropes in the legendary Bob Mould to help him (yes, as in Husker Du!) and between them they create something thrumming, bass-heavy, threatening and hypnotically groovy, with the metronomic rhythm thrust way up front. It's abrasive, immoveable and a veritable dancefloor rave-up in its' own right. And yes, we are talking about Interpol here. Who'd have thought it, eh?
But then Interpol are operating with such confidence these days that given the local phone book and 15 minutes, you get the feeling they could come up with something memorable. "C'mere" beckons you more persuasively to their cause then ever before. Succumbing and answering the call would seem to be the only option.
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