The Other Side of Make Believe is an Interpol ready for a new age

Though while their offerings tended to lie in the murky undergrounds and alleys with dubious characters straight from the life and mind of vocalist and guitarist Paul Banks, over their career they’ve emerged as studious proprietors of the ‘Interpol’ sound, which can be whittled down to darting guitars, rattling drums and Banks’ inimitable vocals. The bending and breaking of these components has led to this, their seventh album. The Other Side of Make Believe comes toting an Interpol we’re yet to see but still with all the same clicking cogs that first enraptured us.

Composed during remote sessions, this circumstance lends itself to the more considered nature of the album. Banks’ vocals refrain themselves from opening up, instead hovering over proceedings thanks to being removed from a live writing environment. This new way of delivery for Banks feels befitting The Other Side’s motives – one of ignoring the state of the world, since we’re all aware, and choosing to focus on being hopeful – but they can soon wear as you begin to yearn for more haste.

Similarly, there’s always been an urgency, even when they ease into something more restrained, but The Other Side explores this condition further. Letting the songs envelope Banks’ low-laying vocals, when they all fall into a subdued melancholy it becomes a swooning mass of Interpol at their finest. “Renegade Hearts” does this while retaining the proposed hopefulness with calls of “Renegade hearts / make escape art”; two lines which both feel distinctly Interpol, and also sum up the idea of finding love in a world on the brink (though “the serpent spins around the silken cyclone” does come a close second).

Interpol have certainly always felt most powerful when they embrace the sprinting sounds of effect-laden guitars. And while Kessler still darts, pirouetting around Banks’ emotional laments, it's Sam Fogarino’s drumming which brings this new realisation of the band to life – ensuring the deft change of tact in “Into The Night” finds its feet from delicate droplets to rattling deft fury.

The Other Side of Make Believe is an Interpol ready for the new age. It’s proved they can move onto album seven – even when the world was forcing everyone apart – and amidst side projects and other endeavours, the trio are a staple the world would do better to relish in since they deliver a high quality every time without sacrificing any of that brooding integrity we all so know and love.