Interpol’s major-label debut doesn’t stray from the sound established on their first two albums, but Our Love to Admire does feel more expansive and cinematic—at least relative to their often claustrophobic arrangements up to that point. A lot of this comes down to the band becoming more comfortable with open space in the music, and allowing for some more delicate sounds like piano and understated strings. The slow-burn opener “Pioneer to the Falls” builds up suspense for a full minute before the drums kick in. From there the song feels as though it’s a grand vista presented in black and white widescreen, epic in scale but still haunting and bleak. The ballads “No I in Threesome” and “Rest My Chemistry” have a similar palette and dynamic, but the band subverts expectations by rejecting any implied sentimentality or romance, as though they set out to write more obliquely spiteful variations on R.E.M.’s classic “The One I Love”. Our Love to Admire works best when Interpol is messing around with their formula. Album highlight “Mammoth” sounds as though all the sections of the song were shuffled around in a bag and then tossed out, with the parts played in the order that they hit the floor. The song bursts forward at top speed from the start before seeming to crash into a wall, then stumbles around in a daze before suddenly going back to a full sprint. The music feels drunk and belligerent, forceful and unrelenting. Singer and guitarist Paul Banks sounds impatient and aggrieved as he whines “Spare me the suspense” or spits out the line “It’s enough with this fucking incense” like a goth dandy, but then suddenly warm and gentle when he tells you that he knows “seven aging daddies you may want to know”. It’s pure Banks, switching from dramatic and emotionally charged lines to puzzling “Why would anyone sing that?” phrases on a dime.