This post isn't really about a battle of pseudo goths per say, but more of a loose comparison of moody music and memo to Interpol who recently "leaked" a new track called Lights all over the internet. It's important to note that I have been a devoted Interpol fan forever and then some, and even was pretty happy with their much derided first major label release Our Love To Admire. I also fell head over heels with Paul Bank's solo turn as Julian Plenti
which came in at number 5 on my list of favorite albums of '09 (although at his show last year I did lament that I wished it was the 'pol I was seeing instead, it still held its own). Don't be fooled though, I hold Interpol to very very high standards and when I heard that a new track had been released after a 2 year drought I nearly bolted out of a mexican restaurant without even finishing my tasty marg to hear what they had put out there. And now I am going to tell you, I am kind of glad I stayed and finished that margarita.
Don't get me wrong, Lights is just fine, clocking in at 5:38 of everything we have come to expect from Interpol. And maybe that's the problem, because I sort of want to expect bigger and better this time around, especially when comparing them to the new band who I have come to adore, UK act Hurts. Hurts present a similar variety of pseudo-goth new wavey excellence but when I play their tracks in comparison to Lights there is just something I find lacking from Interpol's latest offering. Maybe it's that Hurts just pull out all the stops and yet don't take themselves seriously at all. The video for "Better Than Love" is completely ridiculous - there was even a trailer for it - all moody and artsy and fairly pretentious - but maybe that's what's so perfect about it is that theatrical over-the-topness. It's at least INTERESTING.
Either way, I will love them both equally I'm sure, I just think Interpol could step back and do something far more awesome with their next album. Get on that guys, I'm going to go back to rocking any Hurts mp3s I can get my hands on until you do.
Hurts - Better Than Love
Interpol - Lights