"How are things on the west coast?" is how I answer the telephone nowadays. I just can’t help it, that’s how catchy this song is. And it’s no strange occurrence that this also happens to be the first line bellowed by Paul Banks on ‘The Heinrich Maneuver’, the comeback single taken from Interpol’s hotly-anticipated third album, Our Love To Admire.
Lyrically it comes from the same notepad as 2004’s 'Slow Hands', but Banks now sits in his high-rise Manhattan penthouse pining after some Californian chick, asking "How are things on the west coast? You wear those shoes like a dove. Now strut those shoes… We'll go roaming in the night.. Today my heart swings". This is classic Interpol, through-and-through. It’s that storming delivery of Banks’ meaty rhythm guitar and the spiraling bass line courtesy of the dapper Carlos Dengler which lay the foundations for Daniel Kessler’s sharp-as-the-suit-he-wears reverberated riffage.
Two ‘n’ a half minutes into the track and it all seems to have finished. But oh, _no_, hold on… it’s back and it’s back with wreaking balls bigger and harder than Ali ever possessed. This perfect placement of a breakdown tears the speakers apart with precision and pace, whilst plastering a perverse grin across the face. It’s clear that Paul and the boys haven’t lost any of the magic that peppers past releases like stars against a sea of black. Sure, it’s no radical departure from their past two efforts, but that old chestnut ‘if it ain't broke, don't fix it’ springs to mind.
Shout it: “Yeah, today my heart swings!"_ You may just as well admit it now, because you'll be singing it at the top of your voice, complete with beer can aloft and sunburned forehead, at a festival near you this summer.
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8Tom Milway's Score