This Mirror Weighs a Ton

While indie-sleaze Instagram accounts and Just Like Heaven festival lineups allow millennial music fans to easily revisit the mid-2000s, post-Y2K post-punkers Interpol refuse to look back. Sure, certain aspects of the group’s sound—Paul Banks’ stern yet sensitive voice, Daniel Kessler’s dark yet dreamy guitar lines and that ever-present nocturnal NYC atmosphere—have remained undisturbed by the passage of time. But on their eighth album, <i>This Mirror Weighs a Ton</i>, those sturdy sonic signatures serve as the anchors that allow Interpol to further stretch their aesthetic while still holding onto their essential doomed-romantic identity, be it through the smoky trip-hop of the title track <b>“This Mirror Weighs a Ton”</b>, the reggae-tinged grooves of <b>“Wounded Soldier”</b>, the sound-collage piano balladry of <b>“Sudden”</b> and the prickly disco gallop of <b>“Wake Up”</b>, which is closer to an early-2000s dance-punk track than anything Interpol actually recorded in that era. That said, if you’re still pining for the Interpol of old, the wiry rocker (and rare Banks/Kessler vocal duet) <b>“See Out Loud”</b> provides the necessary adrenaline shot to get your slow hands clapping more vigorously. <b>Our Favourite Track:</b> On an album rife with intriguing stylistic detours, the bossa nova Paul Banks of <b>“So Rides the Reindeer”</b> just might be the most alluring.