“Evil” by Interpol

"Evil" was the second single from Antics, Interpol's second album, from 2004, arriving on January 3, 2005, and it's the moment the band's gloom learned to dance. All four members share the writing credit: Paul Banks, Carlos Dengler, Samuel Fogarino and Daniel Kessler. Peter Katis recorded and mixed it, with Greg Giorgio assisting.

The track opens on a bass line that practically struts, the guitars chiming and clipped behind it, and Banks sings with his usual deadpan menace. It's post-punk with the lights turned up a notch, still shadowy but suddenly built for moving.

For years listeners assumed it was about the British serial killers Fred and Rosemary West, and the band has pushed back; in 2024 they told The Guardian that people had it wrong. In a BBC interview they pointed instead to Charles Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil as the spark, with the title cut down to one word.

It reached 18 on the UK Singles Chart and 24 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks, and Triple J listeners in Australia put it at 76 in their Hottest 100 of 2004.

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