review by: Laurent Martini

With a great band name and great album cover I just couldn’t wait to dive into this album. Interpol delivers with the first two songs on the album, “Untitled” and “Obstacle 1.” The band’s feel is similar to brit-pop influenced Kent and Rialto but with a more guitar driven sound.

Unfortunately, after the second song, the rest of the album fades off and misses the mark. The rest of the songs don’t explore any new territory and come off as cheap knockoffs of “Untitled” and “Obstacle 1.” The album almost becomes boring and repetitive and with much less intensity. Having a later song named “Obstacle 2," which is slightly similar to “Obstacle 1" reinforces the feeling that Interpol either gave up or ran of ideas. To recycle songs from previous albums is ok but to recycle a song that appears five songs before is pretty terrible.  (6/10)