This album is like nothing else ever heard in rock music. Question is, is that or a good thing or a bad thing? Well, it could go either way, but it suffices to say Our Love to Admire succeeds brilliantly. The band combines the themes of Turn off the Bright Lights with the polish and sheen of Antics, producing an album that seems “lost” and “slick” to the untrained ear. In reality, not one of these songs can be described so simply. “Mammoth”, “Rest My Chemistry”, and “The Scale” are easy to enjoy but not predictable pop. “Who Do You Think”, “No I in Threesome”, and “Pace is the Trick” are bouncy and likable but hardly happy. “Pioneer to the Falls”, and the two closers “Wrecking Ball” and “Lighthouse” seem to belong to another album altogether, but fit in well. The trick the band pulls off is seeming normal but being deceitful. In the lyrics, someone can sense a kind of treachery whether internal or external. A broken heart lies at the center of the album, containing Bank’s best lyrics yet: “Nobody warned you, nobody told you to make up your mind/I’m inside like a wrecking ball through your eyes”, “I’ve slept for 2 days, I’ve bathed in nothing but sweat/ and I’ve made hallways it seems for things to regret”, “All that we need is one thing/ now what is there to allow/ you feel the sweet breath of time it’s whispering its truth not mine – there’s no I in threesome”.Overall, the theme musically and lyrically is that of a lost soul. Like any great record, there are moments of beauty within songs: the overlapping vocals at the end of “Pace is the Key”; the backwards guitar on “The Scale”; the lushness and atmosphere of “The Lighthouse”. The record has a nice flow to it, and it shows the confidence behind the musicians that it succeeds so well. This is defiantly a gloomy record, consistent with the rest of Interpol’s discography, but it all adds up to the best album the band has done yet- a near perfect musical creation by a unified band. It’s the most intriguing “void of sound” Interpol has made. It is important to note that rock music has gone beyond blues in many ways, and this album proves that as well. “The Lighthouse” is a hell of a lot more interesting than say, “Riders on the Storm” form one of the band’s primary influences, The Doors. Bands like Interpol that push rock music’s boundaries may not be immediately accessible but on subsequent listens reveal very interesting stuff. Our Love to Admire is very ahead of its time and hopefully someday people will place it among the classics of the 2000’s like it deserves.

Interpol, instead of building on the momentum from its first two albums, pivots to produce an uncompelling and uninteresting dud. While TOTBL and Antics grab the listener almost immediately, this album gets off to a slow start and never gets any better. There is never a point where I'm glad I'm listening to this as opposed to either of their first albums. This might be the worst drop-off from second to third album since Secret Samadhi. Fans agreed - it shot up to #4 on release but vanished without a trace quickly after that.