CD of The Week

The easy narrative on El Pintor, Interpol’s fifth studio album, would be to call it the band’s “return to form.” The New Yorkers’ last album, 2010’s self-titled effort, was bogged down by too many slower songs. It was also the last Interpol record to feature original bassist Carlos D, who left the group. Since then, frontman Paul Banks released a solo record and the band opted to record El Pintor as a three-piece, with Banks on bass.

El Pintor (an anagram for “Interpol” of course) kicks off with their new single, the driving “All The Rage (Back Home),” their best, catchiest song in years and a great announcement that the band is back in business. “My Desire” is taught and moody and reminiscent of their earlier work. Songs like “Anywhere” and “Tidal Wave” are built around guitarist Daniel Kessler’s signature guitar riffs “Ancient Ways” creates a towering wall of guitars and keyboards, and may have been the reason behind Interpol playing a set last week at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art amidst 2,000 year old Egyptian ruins. “My Blue Supreme” features a chorus of “cruising in my Blue Supreme” — an old fashioned rock and roll lyrical image you wouldn’t expect from the oft-inscrutable Banks.

Interpol has never been a band to truly branch out in their sound and essentially stick to what they know best throughout El Pintor. But that’s certainly not a bad thing at all. They return to Philly at Union Transfer on November 22nd, for a show that sold out almost immediately.