For the month of November, I’ll be selecting songs in conjunction with the music Twitter challenge: #WelcomeToTheOccupation.
Following up with a noteworthy album after Turn On The Bright Lights and Antics seemed like an impossible task. As a hardcore Interpol fan at that stage, I was prepared to be let down by my own impossible expectations. Our Love To Admire just didn’t have the same grit and edge. And that’s true, it’s just a different album. Several years later, I’ve come to embrace its uniqueness and like it just as much as the first two heralded albums. “Pioneer To The Falls” is a perfect opener to a different exploration of sound for the band.
When I think of the band’s more haunting tracks, “Pioneer To The Falls” is up there with the best of them. Daniel’s guitar starts out slow, languid and hypnotic, cleverly leading us into Paul’s opening verse. But then the guitar returns before launching into the second verse with that familiar soaring and grating motif that Daniel is known for. But the element that delivers the most haunting effect is the keyboard line from Carlos D. It crawls under your skin and stays there – and a reminder of how exceptionally talented he was as a musician and composer, not just a bassist. The song is nothing without that riff.
“You vanish with no guile and I will not pay, but the soul can wait.”