Hands:Away

Our Love To Admire

Our Love To Admire is the third studio album by New York-based indie rock band Interpol, released July 10, 2007 on Capitol Records. Recorded at Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village and The Magic Shop Studios in New York City, the album is the group’s first to be released on a major label, following the release of their debut and follow-up albums on the independent label Matador Records. On 25 April 2007, the band officially announced the album title as Our Love to Admire as well as the track listing. The first single from the new album, “The Heinrich Maneuver”, was released on 7 May 2007. The album has received a moderately positive critical response of 70 overall at Metacritic.

Track listing

1. “Pioneer to the Falls” - 5:41
2. “No I in Threesome” - 3:50
3. “The Scale” - 3:23
4. “The Heinrich Maneuver” - 3:28
5. “Mammoth” - 4:12
6. “Pace Is the Trick” - 4:36
7. “All Fired Up” - 3:35
8. “Rest My Chemistry” - 5:00
9. “Who Do You Think” - 3:12
10. “Wrecking Ball” - 4:30
11. “The Lighthouse” - 5:25

Bonus tracks (Japan version)

* “Mind Over Time” - 4:49 (also included with iTunes version in the U.K. and iTunes pre-order version in the U.S.)
* “Mammoth (instrumental)”

Sound

“ We had keyboards on from the start which we’ve never done before. It’s like a fifth member. There’s a lot more texture, and interesting sounds, there’s definitely progression and growth. â€?

—Guitarist Daniel Kessler, in an NME interview.

According to band members, Our Love to Admire is more “expressive” than the group’s previous efforts, and uses many more keyboards and textures. Prior to the album’s release, Billboard offered the following brief descriptions of some of band’s new songs:
“ First single “The Heinrich Maneuver” is a peppy kiss-off to an ex-love now residing on the opposite coast and hits radio May 7; the band has been playing it of late during its just-concluded Canadian tour. The band is on familiar footing with tracks like the tense “No I in Threesome” (”Maybe it’s time we give something new a try,” frontman Paul Banks sings) and the relentless “Mammoth,” which are loaded with Daniel Kessler’s simple, repeated guitar riffs and Carlos D’s powerful bass underpinnings. There are some new sonic experiments; the album begins with the funereal, nearly six-minute “Pioneer to the Falls,” featuring Jim Morrison-esque crooning from Banks, and wraps with another unusually ambient piece, “The Lighthouse.” Hints of soul creep in on the spaced-out “Rest My Chemistry” (”I’ve slept for two days / I’ve bathed in nothing but sweat,” Banks sings) and “Pace Is the Trick.” â€?

—Billboard article on the band’s upcoming release.

History

“ Hello everyone. Seeing that the website has lain furlough for a while, we felt that we owed you an update. And we’d imagine that in the absence of official emissions misinformation is rampant. So here it is: things are good. Gettin’ some rest… Gettin’ some sun. We did break up, four times, but that’s all behind us now. Carlos got a dog. His name is Gaius. Italian greyhound: looks like Carlos. Also, I think I’m moving to Jersey City, because that’s where the action is really at. Whoever the people on MySpace are, they’re not us. In all seriousness, we’re hard at work on the writing of album three. We’ve been at it for six months, in case you heard we were on hiatus. We’re all very excited about it and think that you will be too. Having yet to record, we can only say that release will come sometime next year. As far as the website, check back for further developments and updates. And thanks for standing by. We have you all in our hearts and little pulsating musical minds. We can’t offer much of a preview at present, but I can tell you we’ve got one gem in the works entitled “The Heinrich Maneuver.” And another that was called “Pawn Shop.” But that’s called something else now. Thank you for being with us. And we truly look forward to sharing with you our newest. â€?

—Singer Paul Banks, in a rare update on Interpol’s website.

Since Interpol’s contract with Matador had expired, it was initially speculated that Interpol would sign with Interscope Records. However, drummer Sam Fogarino rejected these claims as “pure speculation”. It was later confirmed that the band would sign to a major label, though they chose Capitol over Interscope.

The new album was produced by Rich Costey, who is notable for his work with Muse on Absolution and Black Holes and Revelations, as well as Franz Ferdinand on You Could Have It So Much Better.

Leaks

Sometime in March 2007, an album called Mammoth, attributed to Interpol, appeared on P2P networks. However, the album was actually a renamed copy of Exit Decades, recorded by Swedish band Cut City. Due to some similarities in style between those two bands, this “fake leak” was quite convincing to some listeners. There was another false leak — a renamed version of Sam’s Town by the Killers with ‘The Heinrich Maneuver’ included on it.

The song “The Heinrich Maneuver” was streamed in its entirety from AOL’s music blog, Spinner, a few days before the single’s official release. MP3 rips of this stream were widely circulated through the internet via P2P clients. On June 16, 2007, “The Scale”, “All Fired Up” and “Rest My Chemistry” were leaked through Myspace in low quality audio. On June 20 “Pioneer to the Falls” was released on Pitchfork Media, as a stream. On June 21, 2007, the complete album was leaked onto P2P networks.

Chart Performance

The album has scored Interpol’s best chart positions in their career, debuting inside the top five of the UK & US album charts, reaching number-three on the European Albums Chart and selling over 154,000 copies of their album in its first week worldwide, debuting at number five in the United World Chart. The album debuted #4 on the Billboard 200 at 71,000, but has suffered from fast drop, on week two it droped to 24 a with 22,000 copies, and on week 3, droped below the top 50, at 51 with 13,000, then dropped to #65 with 11,000 copies sold, selling a total 117,000 copies so far