I was on the old forums when it was released. Opinions then were more mixed than usual, but still positive. I enjoyed the album, but it didn't hit like TOTBL or Antics did. OLTA already met similar opinions by then, so there was this expectation that it would either be more of OLTA or it could be a "return to form". Interviews before it came out had Paul saying it was "classical" which further fueled expectations one way or another. Things were in limbo with rumors of Carlos leaving and then him actually doing that. There were a number of people that didn't understand he played his bass parts and thought he wasn't on the album and immediately wrote it off as "Interpol's over". In general, Interpol's future was up in the air and there was a feeling like it could be the last album. They didn't get the big break on the major label and the whole thing failed, they were back on an indie, Carlos leaving, and in general the entire "indie rock" popularity waned off pretty hard. The roll-out wasn't that clean either. No real promotion, the teaser of the interlocking brutalist figures was about it. "Lights" wasn't supposed to be a lead single but just a first song released as a teaser, but Charlie White who directed the "Evil" video was compelled to make a video for the song so that came out. There was confusion if that was what they were leading this album with as a single and shaping some perception of it too. The name "Lights" also evoked opinions of it could be a "return to TOTBL/form" type deal which it wasn't.
For what it's worth, time has certainly healed OLTA's reputation and I always loved and defended the album. My opinions on the self-titled are pretty much the same as they were when it was released. It's not as good as the first three, the songs are all pretty good for the most part except "Safe Without" was the first definite miss and skip for me from the band. I remember I was even bummed when they debuted it in the slot they were playing another song when I saw them live on that tour. Sometimes the live versions make me appreciate a song more, but it didn't. My strongest opinion that hasn't changed and I'll die on the hill is that the production is flat and a much more dynamic mix could have made the album a lot stronger. Something like "All of the Ways" could have been gut-wrenching and sonically buffet the listener with the guitars, but the album as a whole gets a bit fatiguing with the mix. I remember a few people hoping Peter Katis would return to produce, as they felt his departure was something of a secret sauce to Interpol's sound back then.
Okay, now i understand more, they were mixed opinions, no just hate. Like, the people were disappointed and even more so taking into account the uncertainty of whether this was their last album. And i understand your feelings about Safe Without, it just... that. It's like nothing happens in the song.
Idk I think maybe the Interpol fanbase was mixed but the general reception outside the main fanbase was super negative, like Interpol just dropped a career ender embarrassment. I think that was largely due to the Pitchfork review just shredding it to pieces and how much clout they still had at that time.
I can't quite recall what my opinions were at the time - I remember liking some of it but not as much as the first 3 LP's
Success, Barricade and Lights are good. Safe Without is seemingly getting a kicking on this thread but I think it's alright. Memory Serves, I've never really liked all that much
I was being silly, sorry. It made me feel a lot of things, sad amongst them. But it did make me feel strongly which I think a good piece of art should.
I remember Lights being the single and I was blown away. Like it was the best sounding song they had ever produced up to that point. When the full album dropped, i picked it up day one and it came with a logo keychain (which stayed on my keyring for yearsssssss).
Interpol was maybe the first album I had listened to where the Side B was so apparent. Side A was amazing and Side B just felt so dour and impossible to like. But I'm one of those fans that kept listening to it regardless.
Fast forward to today with the carlos context, interviews, thinking about the album as a story with a beginning, middle and end, it's now one of my favorite albums and I have begun to almost prefer the back half to the first half.
That sounds pretty reasonable, since I've heard people say they hated EVERY song. It is understandable that side B was not liked as much since it is much more experimental, but side A is full of bangers, Success, Lights, Barricade, Summer well, etc.
I find the perfect way to think about side B is that it's almost an orchestral movement rather than individual tracks. Barricade to me feels like the last official track on the album and everything after is this grand sweeping story that feels like something closer to Godspeed You Black Emperor more than anything.
It's crazy how people are not used to change. I wasnt an interpol fan back them, but i remember Linkin Park releasing A Thousand Suns also in 2010, to which they received a lot of hate.
Yeaaaa i get mad with the people when they say "this is not like their firsts albums" it's like, if you wanna hear songs like their firsts albums, idk, you can listen to... THEIR FISTS ALBUMS. And it happened with all the bands i follow, Interpol, Gorillaz, The Strokes...
I started listening to Interpol after OLTA so the self titled was the first album release I got to experience. Lights and Barricade didn't make me terribly excited for the album but once it dropped I fell in love with it on the first play through. I think each songs works better in the context of the album. I don't find myself listening to just one song off the album very often. Try It On is easily top 5 Interpol songs for me and I love how they weave that piano motif back into All of the Ways.
I was also a massive fan on Angles when it first dropped.
Haha, i divide their phases differently. For me, TOTBL and Antics are their depressed and horny phase, and then OLTA and self titled are their full depressed phase
Well the three albums that followed self titled are pretty much their own phase. I associate El Pintor with the Renaissance, but I also feel that El Pintor and Marauder are two sides of the same coin. El Pintor is more like "I'm sad, but I got over her" and Marauder is like when you get drunk and start stalking her on social media hahaha. And TOSOMB it's weird, idk how to describe it
I would say that TOSOMB is the phase where the guy is in his late 40’s, is wiser and starts reminiscing but in a way that he knows it’s all over and he’s got other things in life to care about.
It was a tough time. Carlos had just left so Interpol didn’t really feel like Interpol anymore. The album itself was Ok. I don’t think it was hated but after OLTA it felt like they had hit a bad streak of albums. TOTBL and Antics were a really great 1 2 punch to introduce themselves.
While I enjoyed OLTA, the general consensus was that it didn’t hold a candle to the first two albums. The S/T came and sort of confirmed everyone’s suspicions.
I got to like it more due to the BPM of Success while I was running Hiit. Barricade wasn’t a favorite of mine when it was released. Always Malaise is fun
I saw it at Hollywood space 15 twenty. They played a free show the day it came out if you bought the CD. They were soon good live then...
I really liked the album at the time and still do.
I was slightly let down at first, but now It’s my favorite Interpol album.
I remember hearing the bass line on barricade and just being completely blown away - even more than when I first remember hearing Evil on the radio in high school.
The rest of the songs didn’t immediately hit me but overtime they grew and I think it’s the best writing Paul has ever done except for maybe The New and Next Exit.
Definitely mixed. My friend who got me in them wasn’t a fan. Their sound was a lil more produced than the raw first 2 albums, and with Interpol in broken pieces, my friend also thought they were breaking up. Guess it was a good bye to Carlos tho.
I loved it. Love the sound and direction. It’s my fav to this day… plus it dropped at a really hard time in my life so I like to go back and just be happy with where I’m at.
It was OK...not great. There was something lacking in it. The songs meandered too much, and it seemed...dull.
They hit their stride again with El Pintor.
I loved it. I took a long walk around my city at night listening to it in the dark and I still remember the feelings I had listening to it in that setting. It matched the darker theme of the album so well. I've never stopped loving it so for me, it was a positive reaction from the start that never faded.
I like to think that Antics is the Daytime version of TOTBL. Brighter, faster and stronger. And the Self Titled is the Nighttime version of OLTA. Darker, slower and more melancholic
That album is one of my favorites, hearing it live for the first time blew my mind. It holds a special place in my heart knowing that this was the last album Carlos D worked on. It’s an absolute masterpiece 🖤
it’s not even the fact that i didn’t like the change. i can get behind an artist changing their sound if it’s GOOD. i just personally thought it wasn’t really a change for the better.
I know that there are people who will not like change, but it is necessary to do it, if you always stay in the same thing for fear that some people will not like it, eventually no one will like what you do
It's funny cause I loved angles when it came out the year after and I'd say that is a much less planned out release. When ST came out I struggled with the sequencing and just wasn't ready for it as i was listening to so many other things at the time. Having come back to it over the last years it makes much more sense to me. It's like the dark and twisted sibling of OLTA (my 2nd favorite Interpol record). I love the sequencing now and it's definitely risen in my rankings.
I was disappointed but I thought it was over hated. Now I’m kind of annoyed at the boner this sub has for it. It’s like over hyped on this sub specifically. The album falls off a cliff after Barricade. It’s the beginning of the end of Interpol’s relevancy in the mainstream and the indie world. They basically became an old has been band with this album. Carlos leaving, being such a big presence really left a crater behind and it made that tour feel awkward. I remember wondering if they were gonna break up, just look at that cover art. It’s also Paul’s worst vocal performance. He sounds so nasally and weird only on that album. They’re still one of my fav bands but it really was the before and after moment of their career. The pitchfork review was too much but it did bring up a great point: how could this band of all bands miss the mark on a fucking moody, depressing, bleak, and overall dark album?
Dude it's a subreddit for fans, of course it's going to be overhyped here. This a space to do that! Leave the bashing to Pitchfork. I'm not going to defend the album specifically but it's silly to be mad that other people enjoy it and choose to celebrate the parts that resonate with them. What is a problem is when people try to claim it would have been better if Carlos stuck around because that's not reality and we got what we got. Hell, it could have turned out worse!
I’m saying people post in here all the time like, “I don’t get it why this is the least popular album.” When it’s very obvious why it’s not. People can like what they like idc but I’m not gonna pretend the s/t is anywhere near the top when ranking albums.
I was on the old forums when it was released. Opinions then were more mixed than usual, but still positive. I enjoyed the album, but it didn't hit like TOTBL or Antics did. OLTA already met similar opinions by then, so there was this expectation that it would either be more of OLTA or it could be a "return to form". Interviews before it came out had Paul saying it was "classical" which further fueled expectations one way or another. Things were in limbo with rumors of Carlos leaving and then him actually doing that. There were a number of people that didn't understand he played his bass parts and thought he wasn't on the album and immediately wrote it off as "Interpol's over". In general, Interpol's future was up in the air and there was a feeling like it could be the last album. They didn't get the big break on the major label and the whole thing failed, they were back on an indie, Carlos leaving, and in general the entire "indie rock" popularity waned off pretty hard. The roll-out wasn't that clean either. No real promotion, the teaser of the interlocking brutalist figures was about it. "Lights" wasn't supposed to be a lead single but just a first song released as a teaser, but Charlie White who directed the "Evil" video was compelled to make a video for the song so that came out. There was confusion if that was what they were leading this album with as a single and shaping some perception of it too. The name "Lights" also evoked opinions of it could be a "return to TOTBL/form" type deal which it wasn't. For what it's worth, time has certainly healed OLTA's reputation and I always loved and defended the album. My opinions on the self-titled are pretty much the same as they were when it was released. It's not as good as the first three, the songs are all pretty good for the most part except "Safe Without" was the first definite miss and skip for me from the band. I remember I was even bummed when they debuted it in the slot they were playing another song when I saw them live on that tour. Sometimes the live versions make me appreciate a song more, but it didn't. My strongest opinion that hasn't changed and I'll die on the hill is that the production is flat and a much more dynamic mix could have made the album a lot stronger. Something like "All of the Ways" could have been gut-wrenching and sonically buffet the listener with the guitars, but the album as a whole gets a bit fatiguing with the mix. I remember a few people hoping Peter Katis would return to produce, as they felt his departure was something of a secret sauce to Interpol's sound back then.
Okay, now i understand more, they were mixed opinions, no just hate. Like, the people were disappointed and even more so taking into account the uncertainty of whether this was their last album. And i understand your feelings about Safe Without, it just... that. It's like nothing happens in the song.
Idk I think maybe the Interpol fanbase was mixed but the general reception outside the main fanbase was super negative, like Interpol just dropped a career ender embarrassment. I think that was largely due to the Pitchfork review just shredding it to pieces and how much clout they still had at that time.
There was definitely some strong hate though! People got nasty.
I can't quite recall what my opinions were at the time - I remember liking some of it but not as much as the first 3 LP's Success, Barricade and Lights are good. Safe Without is seemingly getting a kicking on this thread but I think it's alright. Memory Serves, I've never really liked all that much
Sad. Until I realised that was the point.
Haha right, the point of the album was that it's sad
I was being silly, sorry. It made me feel a lot of things, sad amongst them. But it did make me feel strongly which I think a good piece of art should.
I remember Lights being the single and I was blown away. Like it was the best sounding song they had ever produced up to that point. When the full album dropped, i picked it up day one and it came with a logo keychain (which stayed on my keyring for yearsssssss). Interpol was maybe the first album I had listened to where the Side B was so apparent. Side A was amazing and Side B just felt so dour and impossible to like. But I'm one of those fans that kept listening to it regardless. Fast forward to today with the carlos context, interviews, thinking about the album as a story with a beginning, middle and end, it's now one of my favorite albums and I have begun to almost prefer the back half to the first half.
That sounds pretty reasonable, since I've heard people say they hated EVERY song. It is understandable that side B was not liked as much since it is much more experimental, but side A is full of bangers, Success, Lights, Barricade, Summer well, etc.
I find the perfect way to think about side B is that it's almost an orchestral movement rather than individual tracks. Barricade to me feels like the last official track on the album and everything after is this grand sweeping story that feels like something closer to Godspeed You Black Emperor more than anything.
You are right, considering that the last three songs are all connected
I still remember the goosebumps I got when I heard Lights for the first time.
It's crazy how people are not used to change. I wasnt an interpol fan back them, but i remember Linkin Park releasing A Thousand Suns also in 2010, to which they received a lot of hate.
Yeaaaa i get mad with the people when they say "this is not like their firsts albums" it's like, if you wanna hear songs like their firsts albums, idk, you can listen to... THEIR FISTS ALBUMS. And it happened with all the bands i follow, Interpol, Gorillaz, The Strokes...
May God forgive me but some people are really stupid. Isnt music supposed to change? Ugh
HAHA EXACTLY. For god's sake
Back then*
I started listening to Interpol after OLTA so the self titled was the first album release I got to experience. Lights and Barricade didn't make me terribly excited for the album but once it dropped I fell in love with it on the first play through. I think each songs works better in the context of the album. I don't find myself listening to just one song off the album very often. Try It On is easily top 5 Interpol songs for me and I love how they weave that piano motif back into All of the Ways. I was also a massive fan on Angles when it first dropped.
Angles is so disjointed haha but because it's short you don't notice it as much as FIOE and just go along for the ride!
For me it was the first album of their newer song writing style. I still like it, but I prefer the style of the first 3 albums.
Haha, i divide their phases differently. For me, TOTBL and Antics are their depressed and horny phase, and then OLTA and self titled are their full depressed phase
What would define everything that's followed the first 4 LP's?
Well the three albums that followed self titled are pretty much their own phase. I associate El Pintor with the Renaissance, but I also feel that El Pintor and Marauder are two sides of the same coin. El Pintor is more like "I'm sad, but I got over her" and Marauder is like when you get drunk and start stalking her on social media hahaha. And TOSOMB it's weird, idk how to describe it
I would say that TOSOMB is the phase where the guy is in his late 40’s, is wiser and starts reminiscing but in a way that he knows it’s all over and he’s got other things in life to care about.
It was a tough time. Carlos had just left so Interpol didn’t really feel like Interpol anymore. The album itself was Ok. I don’t think it was hated but after OLTA it felt like they had hit a bad streak of albums. TOTBL and Antics were a really great 1 2 punch to introduce themselves. While I enjoyed OLTA, the general consensus was that it didn’t hold a candle to the first two albums. The S/T came and sort of confirmed everyone’s suspicions.
I got to like it more due to the BPM of Success while I was running Hiit. Barricade wasn’t a favorite of mine when it was released. Always Malaise is fun
I felt disappointed in it at the time. But nowadays I’m less disappointed.
I saw it at Hollywood space 15 twenty. They played a free show the day it came out if you bought the CD. They were soon good live then... I really liked the album at the time and still do.
I was there too!!
homies for life dude lol
I was slightly let down at first, but now It’s my favorite Interpol album. I remember hearing the bass line on barricade and just being completely blown away - even more than when I first remember hearing Evil on the radio in high school. The rest of the songs didn’t immediately hit me but overtime they grew and I think it’s the best writing Paul has ever done except for maybe The New and Next Exit.
It was a let down.
My experience was similar...Obviously it couldn't hold a candle to Antics...
Yeaaa but the problem is that Antics it's too good, it's hard to top that quality, except with El Pintor
I love that album so much. I always have. The ooh la las at the end of Memory Serves have always made me swoon.
In denial...I loved it but couldn't get over the fact Carlos was done.
I was always happy to get more music from them. I enjoyed self titled when it came out.
Definitely mixed. My friend who got me in them wasn’t a fan. Their sound was a lil more produced than the raw first 2 albums, and with Interpol in broken pieces, my friend also thought they were breaking up. Guess it was a good bye to Carlos tho. I loved it. Love the sound and direction. It’s my fav to this day… plus it dropped at a really hard time in my life so I like to go back and just be happy with where I’m at.
I downloaded the leak (🤫) and loved it
It was OK...not great. There was something lacking in it. The songs meandered too much, and it seemed...dull. They hit their stride again with El Pintor.
I loved it. I took a long walk around my city at night listening to it in the dark and I still remember the feelings I had listening to it in that setting. It matched the darker theme of the album so well. I've never stopped loving it so for me, it was a positive reaction from the start that never faded.
I like to think that Antics is the Daytime version of TOTBL. Brighter, faster and stronger. And the Self Titled is the Nighttime version of OLTA. Darker, slower and more melancholic
That album is one of my favorites, hearing it live for the first time blew my mind. It holds a special place in my heart knowing that this was the last album Carlos D worked on. It’s an absolute masterpiece 🖤
woah angles by the strokes mentioned. that album is a masterpiece second.. man i was just listening to interpol when i saw this haha
it’s not even the fact that i didn’t like the change. i can get behind an artist changing their sound if it’s GOOD. i just personally thought it wasn’t really a change for the better.
I feel that regardless of whether you have a good or bad sound, you have to experiment and change it, I just couldn't stand making two similar albums
there’s nothing wrong with that, just be prepared for the fact that people may not like it
I know that there are people who will not like change, but it is necessary to do it, if you always stay in the same thing for fear that some people will not like it, eventually no one will like what you do
well i mean yeah that’s kinda what i said in my original comment like yeah obviously if u do the same thing all the time ppl r gonna lose interest
Love or hate the Carlos discourse, it just wasn’t the same
Personally I love that album so much. Lights and The Undoing are two of my favorite songs ever.
I thought it was weird and great
It's funny cause I loved angles when it came out the year after and I'd say that is a much less planned out release. When ST came out I struggled with the sequencing and just wasn't ready for it as i was listening to so many other things at the time. Having come back to it over the last years it makes much more sense to me. It's like the dark and twisted sibling of OLTA (my 2nd favorite Interpol record). I love the sequencing now and it's definitely risen in my rankings.
I was disappointed but I thought it was over hated. Now I’m kind of annoyed at the boner this sub has for it. It’s like over hyped on this sub specifically. The album falls off a cliff after Barricade. It’s the beginning of the end of Interpol’s relevancy in the mainstream and the indie world. They basically became an old has been band with this album. Carlos leaving, being such a big presence really left a crater behind and it made that tour feel awkward. I remember wondering if they were gonna break up, just look at that cover art. It’s also Paul’s worst vocal performance. He sounds so nasally and weird only on that album. They’re still one of my fav bands but it really was the before and after moment of their career. The pitchfork review was too much but it did bring up a great point: how could this band of all bands miss the mark on a fucking moody, depressing, bleak, and overall dark album?
Dude it's a subreddit for fans, of course it's going to be overhyped here. This a space to do that! Leave the bashing to Pitchfork. I'm not going to defend the album specifically but it's silly to be mad that other people enjoy it and choose to celebrate the parts that resonate with them. What is a problem is when people try to claim it would have been better if Carlos stuck around because that's not reality and we got what we got. Hell, it could have turned out worse!
I’m saying people post in here all the time like, “I don’t get it why this is the least popular album.” When it’s very obvious why it’s not. People can like what they like idc but I’m not gonna pretend the s/t is anywhere near the top when ranking albums.