Interpol by Interpol

Interpol's self-titled fourth album came out on Matador on September 7, 2010, produced by the band itself at Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village. It's also a goodbye: founding bassist Carlos Dengler left soon after it was finished, and the strain shows. Paul Banks later said the tension around Dengler's exit made the sessions a misery, even as he stood by what ended up on the record.

The songs are darker and more knotted than the sleek post-punk of Turn On the Bright Lights, Daniel Kessler's guitar lines coiling around Sam Fogarino's drums while Dengler's bass and keys thicken the murk. "Barricade" led off as the first single in August, followed by "Summer Well", "Lights" and "Try It On". Critics shrugged, measuring it against the earlier records, but Banks rates "Lights" and "The Undoing" among the band's finest. Afterward, Interpol went on hiatus.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.