Which bands made it out of the 2000s indie-rock boom not only intact, but thriving?
It's not for GRAMMY.com to suggest who didn't, but it's abundantly clear by almost any metric who did. The National made it out. So did Bloc Party. And so did the Strokes, Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys… the list goes on. Going off the merits of their latest album, The Other Side of Make-Believe, it's clearly time to write Interpol into that list.
Despite a few less-acclaimed albums and the pivotal exit of bassist Carlos Dengler, Interpol have survived partly due to knowing exactly what they're good at: Eschewing sweeping gestures, accentuating their hypnotic rhythm section, dialing up the atmosphere to 10, drawing attention to singer Paul Banks' palpable charisma.
All those qualities are crystal-clear on The Other Side of Make-Believe, which arrives July 17 on Matador Records. A team-up between the three-piece and star producers Flood and Alan Moulder, the album represents a creative consolidation and conscious grasp for lyrical optimism.
"Yeah, I could focus on how f—ed everything is," Banks said in the album's press release. "But I feel now is the time when being hopeful is necessary, and a still-believable emotion within what makes Interpol Interpol." Added guitarist Daniel Kessler: "I felt a rare sensation of purpose biting on the end of my fishing rod and I was compelled to reel it in."
For those who haven't kept up on Interpol in a while — or are wondering if now's the time to finally get into them — here are five takeaways from The Other Side of Make-Believe.
Interpol Want To Be Themselves — And Only Themselves
Featuring a Technicolor palette and swinging ambitions, Interpol's third album and major-label debut, 2007's Our Love to Admire, was an attempt to expand and evolve. While that album certainly has its acolytes, it began a period where Interpol sometimes couldn't catch a break from the critics.
"When it works, it's undoubtedly impressive," The Guardian opined about Our Love to Admire. "Impressive enough, in fact, to counter the fact that Interpol are pretty light on ideas of their own." The 2010, self-titled follow-up — which Banks called "hard and unpleasant to make" — earned similar marks; Dengler left the band after recording it.
Interpol enjoyed a critical upswing afterward, with 2014's fan favorite El Pintor and 2018's rawer, grittier follow-up, Marauder. Now, the band seems intent on sticking to their strengths while subtly maturing, deepening and exploring new territory.
You can hear that sense of self-understanding in Banks' restrained vocal approach — heard on tunes like "Fables," "Mr Credit" and "Greenwich" — as well as a refusal to streamline or genericize their approach.
"Our band has never exploited rock 'n' roll tropes, no big drum fills or wailing solos," drummer Sam Fogarino said in the press release. "So [Flood] located the core honesty in our sound and found a way to widen it."
As such, The Other Side of Make-Believe inhabits a Goldilocks zone — not rehashing past accomplishments, yet staying inherently, essentially Interpol.
Carlos Dengler's Departure Was Major, But They've Found A Way Forward
By all means, Dengler played a crucial role in Interpol's early success, and the two albums most fans can agree on: 2002's epochal Turn On the Bright Lights and its excellent successor, 2004's Antics. But to hear Banks tell it, taking over bass duties wasn't as difficult as one might think.
"By this record, I had made two solo records, which meant I'd now played bass on two whole records," Banks told Vice in 2018 of El Pintor, their first Dengler-less album. "And, you know, a bass is just a guitar with four strings."
Partly by realizing that Dengler wasn't initially a bassist, but a guitarist, Banks — himself more of guitarist — picked up his instrument. Thereby, Banks "kept the tradition" within the band, "because there are ways guitar players play bass and there are ways bass players play bass.
"I don't play bass like Carlos, but I do play bass like a guitarist," Banks elaborated. "So there is that sort of continuity."
Like the Strokes with their generally well-liked 2013 album Comedown Machine and critically acclaimed 2020 album The New Abnormal — the latter which won a GRAMMY for Best Rock Album at the 2021 GRAMMYs — that sense of "continuity" led Interpol into the light.
They've had their ups and downs in more ways than one, but The Other Side of Make-Believe shows they have bona fide longevity.
The Other Side Proves That This Guitar-Music Era Remains Fertile
"I'll keep pushing forward/ All the obstacles in my way/ Have been falling," Banks sings in The Other Side of Make-Believe's closing track, "Go Easy (Palermo)." "I take shape on the highway/ To exotic states."
That seems to sum up how a handful of bands from the 2000s indie boom have proven to be far more than flashes in the pan; they constitute a sort of classic-rock canon for Gen Z, in the most flattering sense.
Certainly, some unshakeable fans would have been fine with the Strokes quitting after Room on Fire, or Arcade Fire stopping after The Suburbs — or Interpol hanging it up after Antics.
No matter what one thinks about the merits of those bands' successive albums, the fact remains: it's just interesting when a band stretches into multiple decades, with all the attendant hits, misses, bunts and grand slams. Those are the bands we argue about, which is half the fun of music.
So, here's to Interpol placing a new album among their best work — and everything they'll create on the other side of it.