Interpol vs. Editors vs. the rest

First a little background: Neither Interpol nor the Editors have invented this style of music. In fact, it's rather old: the most prominent band of that genre, Joy Division more or less invented it in 1977. Yes, that's right, just like punk, this guitar wave music is 30 years old. Not only are Joy Divisions the most prominent band, they also set landmarks like "She lost control" against which to measure achievements of competitors. There have been several bands, typically in the first half of the eighties, which took the genre to new heights. For instance, while the first album "Script of the bridge" by The Chameleons is still my most favourite album of them, "What does anything mean? Basically" introduced a completely new take at the genre. Or listen to "What happens now?" on "The death of cool" by Kitchens of distinction: there's a dynamic that's still going to blow you away. Now, during the nineties, this sound was more or less forgotten, with the only notable exception of The Convent, which tried to modernize the sound. Often citing The Sound, another fantastic band from the 80s, the Convents main new accomplishment was the addition of very fragile, carefully instrumented songs.

Jump to today: there seems to be a kind of revival for this kind of music, and like a comparison of the Chameleons to U2 was pretty much unavoidable at the start of the 80s, Interpol and Editors are always compared -- to themselves, of course, but also to Joy Division, of all things. "Our love to admire" sees Interpol continuing on their journey to the perfect depressing pop song that Joy Division might have written if Ian Curtis death' wouldn't have let straight to New Order. What this means is that late Joy Division songs as they appear on the first New Order album essentially had a much more positive touch. While not positive at all in its intent, a song like "Rest my chemistry", for instance is basically just poppy and relaxed. Of course, that's not all there is: you also have the angstful, urging accuses like "Who do you think now?" but no album of a band in this genre could do without. What's really interesting, however, is the lack of large variation: For somebody who isn't as fascinated by this kind of sound as I am, it's highly likely to think that there is basically only one song on this CD. (I remember reading a review of The Cure's album "Faith" claiming that all songs would sound the same, with "Primary" just being played faster). Essentially, "Our love to admire" is TOTBL, take three, so my overall judgement (7/10) isn't much different from take one: it's a nice album, I like it and it's quite good. But on the overall achievement scala against Joy Division, there isn't much progress. Yes, there is more variation this time, but it's not what touches you at heart: it's still the same ingredients that make this sound so intense. Nothing less, but also nothing more. The production of the record, which doesn't add anything to the basic sound, just proves that this is by intention. This is all nice and fine, but it doesn't leave my heart aching for more.

Now, let's turn to "An end has a start". The Editors, starting off much closer to bands such as Echo and the Bunnymen, seem to seek to turn themselves into a strange mutation of U2 and Arcade Fire, adding pathos and somewhat stadium aiming guitars to their sound. I'm not particular drawn in by that ingredient, but to be fair and in comparison to Interpol's way, it's pretty unique. Although only in that particular combination with that guitar style, of course, otherwise, the wave or gothic genre drowns in pathos. This is also my main objection problem with "An end has a start": sometimes the songs sound so holy, it's getting ridiculous that it's tempting to treat it as kitsch. However, that is just my private opinion, and looking at it from a marketing stance, it's probably entirely the right thing to do.

At first, I liked "An end has a start" better than "Our love to admire". Now that several months have passed, I'm a little tired by the new Editors album. The same also holds for the Interpol album, but not as much. This probably means that while Interpol have been more successful on their journey than the Editors, although they probably don't follow the same road.