I once characterized one of the stages of grief (following Denial that
you're in Canada) as "Anger that you own an Interpol album." I have
never gotten past track four of this album because it's so whiny and
self-indulgent. I am going to share this odyssey with you all.
Also,
for reference's sake, I got the album at a 2-for-one sale at which I
bought the Avril Lavigne album "Let Go" and enjoyed that substantially
more.
---
Why is it whenever a flame war starts, people always go
after the user names? For christ's sake, this is a message board,
everybody's name sucks.
-Gold Wyrm
I'm part of the way through the first track, "Next Exit," which I
assume is some poorly-thought-out Sartre reference that doesn't go
anywhere.
I don't hate it, except that the chorus is "We ain't going to the town / we're going to the city / we're going to trek
this shit around" and then some stuff that I get to angered to listen
to entirely. And I checked the liner notes. It's "Trek." I have no idea
what this could possibly mean unless they're using some neologistic
idiom that they themselves made up (note: that means that it's
unintelligible to everyone ever). And you can *guess* what it means.
But why would you?
---
Why is it whenever a flame war starts,
people always go after the user names? For christ's sake, this is a
message board, everybody's name sucks.
-Gold Wyrm
Second track: they're clearly only playing five chords. I get that
that's the appeal, but still. Backup vocals have unpleasant nasal
quality.
Backup vocals, upon further consideration, are just the lead vocals through an extra filter. Willis Smash.
---
Why
is it whenever a flame war starts, people always go after the user
names? For christ's sake, this is a message board, everybody's name
sucks.
-Gold Wyrm
Second song's bridge: we're down to three chords.
I
don't hate the chorus; again, it lacks a certain amount of context,
specifically the amount of context it would take to make sense. It
sounds like it's about a failed relationship, which failed because the
narrator had no desire to consummate the relationship and the girl
refused to forgive him for some wronging.
---
Why is it
whenever a flame war starts, people always go after the user names? For
christ's sake, this is a message board, everybody's name sucks.
-Gold Wyrm
The third song is called "Narc." I discover now that I have been
confusing the second and third tracks for several years, imagining them
to be the same song.
I'll
occasionally wake up in the morning with a song stuck in my head that I
haven't heard in years, which applies to this album as well as any
others, and I have only now become aware that these are different
songs. Not like a Coldplay album where you can argue that there's some
kind of Leitmotif thing at work, or like a Jethro Tull album where
there's *supposed* to be only one song, it's just really clear that
they don't know enough chords to vary them sufficiently that the
progressions don't bleed into one another.
They are now using
the guitar as a percussion instrument. Also, the bass is only
functioning as percussion. I mean, they're playing the same chord over
and over again at a regular interval without a variation in rhythm. I
mean, they're using them as bongos.
Also, the vocals are functioning the same way.
---
Why
is it whenever a flame war starts, people always go after the user
names? For christ's sake, this is a message board, everybody's name
sucks.
-Gold Wyrm
I think this might be the farthest I've gotten. "Take you on a Cruise" is the name of the track.
The
opening lines contain the analogy "You make money like Fred Astaire." I
can't fathom what this means, because the man certainly did well for
himself. I'm out of ways to call this music bland, so now I'm
nitpicking lyrics that I don't have the time to nitpick properly.
I
didn't realize that this was a different track from the previous two
(the first track, in fairness, remains distinct in my mind). I'm a
little worried that the entire rest of the album will be variations on
this vague dissonance that almost constitutes a compelling melody.
---
Why
is it whenever a flame war starts, people always go after the user
names? For christ's sake, this is a message board, everybody's name
sucks.
-Gold Wyrm
I now regret this undertaking and wish sincerely to do something else. But I am committed.
The
tempo picks up for the next track, but the guitar still alternates
between two chords for the first minutish. It's headache-inducing. I'm
not even mad anymore. Just uninterested.
---
Why is it whenever
a flame war starts, people always go after the user names? For christ's
sake, this is a message board, everybody's name sucks.
-Gold Wyrm
This is called "Not Even Jail." There was a bit about prison in one of
the earlier tracks, so this might be thematic continuity. Also, the
style of sleep-inducing overproduced vocals and repetitive droning
guitar is back, providing irritational continuity.
The
droning (there's no other way to describe it) melody reminds me of the
store at which I bought the album, at which I later shopped with a girl
I cared a great deal for, so I'm melancholy, which I guess is the idea,
but that was a momentary flicker of recollection that disappeared in
the time it took me to describe it and can't be attributed to the song.
It's not even emo. It's just boring.
In fact, it's just
intrusive enough that trying to focus on that memory and the ones
around it is possible because there's this really annoying drum machine
that keeps interrupting me.
---
Why is it whenever a flame war
starts, people always go after the user names? For christ's sake, this
is a message board, everybody's name sucks.
-Gold Wyrm
I assume I must be on another song now, because it's been forever and
these aren't making an impression on me. No, wait, same one.
Okay,
now we're on the same one. Okay "Public Pervert" is utterly
indistinguishable from one of the earlier ones. I think "Narc"? I don't
know. Oh my God. They're clearly different songs, but so nearly the
same song. Oh man.
I just saw a picture of one of my less
favorite cousins with some girl on my facebook feed. I clicked saying
loudly to myself "oh man, does he have a hot girlfriend? Because that's
all I can take." As it turns out, he doesn't. She is weird looking.
Where
before the guitar was jarring and unpleasant, it's now cacophonous.
Yet, they're still playing a single chord. Okay, they're now doing the
same thing with two or three chords laid one on top of each other. It's
irritating. I hate it. It's not like God Speed You Black Emperors or
Frank Zappa irritating. It's a five-year-old banging on a keyboard in
the same spot every three seconds with perfect timing irritating.
Oh, boy, now for the crescendo it's getting dissonant. I'm fascinated by your use of dissonance. It pisses me off, Interpol.
---
Why
is it whenever a flame war starts, people always go after the user
names? For christ's sake, this is a message board, everybody's name
sucks.
-Gold Wyrm
Okay, I think this was released as a single. "C'mere." Let's look at the lyrics:
"The trouble is. You're in love with someone else/ It should be me. It should be me."
Are
you kidding me? I withdraw all credibility that once existed for you
guys as subtle lyricists; all of the stuff you said earlier that made
no damned sense? It was senseless. "You're in love with somebody else /
it should be me." Get the shit over yourselves.
Oh, and calling
your girlfriend "little girl?" Creepy as shit. Someone put these
assholes on a sex offender list. They should have to go to every house
in the neighborhood and explain "ma'am, I'm required by law to inform
you that I'm a member of Interpol. Please don't let your children near
me or the kind of people who believe me talented."
---
Why is it
whenever a flame war starts, people always go after the user names? For
christ's sake, this is a message board, everybody's name sucks.
-Gold Wyrm
Oh man. Only two tracks left.
This one is also irritating, but I can't quite articulate how. I've been drinking pretty heavily to dull the pain.
I
should also point out that the ball bearing on my laptop's fan finally
went pretty well completely earlier today, so there's a terrible
screeching noise constantly. It's less irritating than most of the
songs on this album.
This one ("Length of Love") is a rare
exception, both because the fan picked up velocity and because it's a
little quiet. It's merely obscenely generic and not malsonorous.
There's a bit of what sounds like an idiot playing a theremin, but
that's to be expected, because these guys are indie as hell.
Redacted.
Somewhere around minute three the chord that the lead guitarist plays
grows irritating in rapid and ceaseless repetition.
---
Why is
it whenever a flame war starts, people always go after the user names?
For christ's sake, this is a message board, everybody's name sucks.
-Gold Wyrm
Oh thank the Lord, the last track.
Who
the hell likes fuck this purposefully dissonant? From the very first
moment, it's just unpleasant. It's just grating. And, again, not like
Philip Glass "grating on purpose to make an artistic point," which is
also really, really stupid, but distinctly rhythmic but with notes that
oughtn't be played together. They're paired with artless vocals, and
not in a Tom Waits sense, because at least Tom Waits was totally
sincere about it. These are artless and passionless. It's a pleasantly
bland artlessness, which contrasts nicely with the... pointy guitar
(there's no other word for it; the guitar is staccato and higher in
pitch than the rest of the entire ensemble, so it's like letting one's
arm fall asleep and then beating it with a bat covered in broken glass,
but aurally) but has no other real redeeming values.
There. Done. I shall never listen to this entire album again.
---
Why
is it whenever a flame war starts, people always go after the user
names? For christ's sake, this is a message board, everybody's name
sucks.
-Gold Wyrm
Aer you sure the music isn't some sort of less-than-lethal weapon
devised by an international peacekeeping organization, say for
instance, Interpol?
Disclaimer: Digitalpython makes no claims of knowing what the hell Interpol is, band or otherwise.
---
Then I'm going to make sweet, sweet love to my instruction guide for Paper Mario: TTYD - Power of 3
Man, I can't believe you don't like Evil. Also, just to disagree on a whole, what a good album!
You
should do Weezer's Pinkerton next. Most songs sound the same, real
simple guitar parts, and very straightforward, very self indulgent
lyrical content. Or just other Interpol albums. The first one is also
great. Third one is hit or miss.
Also: better music has been made with less than five chords.
---
Ocarinakid
^Weezer exercises more variation in their technical simplicity. These
guys spam the same chord over and over again without variation. Their
idea of a bassline is a drum machine hitting the same drum and a
bassist playing a single chord without syncopation.
---
Why
is it whenever a flame war starts, people always go after the user
names? For christ's sake, this is a message board, everybody's name
sucks.
-Gold Wyrm
Yeah, but they play Slow Hands in that one commercial with Josh Hartnett. Dreamy.
---
Ocarinakid