Interpol’s Black Mirror

Summer is drawing to a close, but it’s treating us to some exciting comebacks, such as Phoebe Bridgers’ *Lost Weekend* and Getdown Services’ *Massive Champion*. Interpol also feature on this list. With a sumptuous, dark and elegant debut in 2002, the New York band captivated a generation who had their parents’ post-punk records at home. Whilst *Turn on the Bright Lights* was immediately hailed as a masterpiece, their follow-up, *Antics* (2004), went some way towards matching its grandeur. Over the following two decades, Interpol built a cult following, going on to draw a crowd of 160,000 people in Mexico City in 2024. This was despite a series of albums with a rather static sound, albeit capable of delivering intense tracks such as “Pioneer to the Falls” or “All the Rage Back Home”. Things are different with *This Mirror Weighs a Ton*, probably thanks in part to the production by Andrew Wyatt, who has previously worked with many artists, including Rosalía and Charli XCX. The latter has recently released the intriguing “Music, Fashion, Film”, her ‘post-Brat’ album in which she reflects on the relationship between fame, identity and public image, venturing into decidedly more rock-oriented territory.

Old DSL internet cables, steel and CCTV cameras: the American artist Addie Wagenknecht used these materials for her 2013 work *Asymmetric Love Number 2*. The result is a sort of ‘1984’-style chandelier that prompts reflection on how our interpersonal relationships are subject to social and digital surveillance. The piece was chosen for the cover of *This Mirror Weighs a Ton*, a title derived from singer Paul Banks’ creative process. This is based on melodic and lyrical improvisation, something that ultimately feels almost like a stream of consciousness. In the case of the opening title track – a melancholic flow imbued with a minimalist sweetness – the soundscape is infused with radio and telephone sounds, soothed by the voice of Juliet Seger, Banks’s wife. “See Out Loud” is a showcase of Interpol’s classic sound, in which guitarist Daniel Kessler also returns to vocals, whilst in “Iron City” we find ourselves strolling through Central Park, sheltering from a downpour of binary code set to subdued guitars, a piano that underpins the track alongside one of the band’s cornerstones: Sam Fogarino’s surgical drumming.

The guitar interludes become more intense in “Wounded Soldier”, before “Wings on Fire” ramps up the energy, which is once again reined in by the sombre “Ever the Actor”. Until the vocals kick in, it’s almost impossible to attribute “So Rides the Reindeer” to Interpol, given the drumming and the acoustic guitar in the foreground. Banks paints everyday scenes made up of ‘vibrant colours on simple clothes’; at other points on the album, he gives free rein to his decadent poetic streak, such as when he sings ‘I’ve replaced my face with your eyes’ in ‘Darling Thoughts’, the second half of which is one of the album’s finest moments. Another track that strays from Interpol’s signature style is “Wake Up”, featuring a Foals-style guitar riff. The piano part in “Enemy”, on the other hand, is reminiscent of Sigur Rós and music about a difficult love. The album closes with the melancholy of ‘Sudden’, preceded by ‘Bird and the Serpent’, in which Banks tells us of a summer that captured his sadness.