“Slow Hands” by Interpol

"Slow Hands" was the lead single from Interpol's second album, Antics, in 2004, and it's the sound of a band loosening its collar just enough. Paul Banks, Carlos Dengler, Sam Fogarino and Daniel Kessler wrote it together, and Peter Katis recorded and mixed it, with Greg Giorgio assisting.

It's post-punk that has found the dance floor: a taut, jittery guitar riff, a bass line that swaggers underneath, drums pushing at the pace, and a vocal that sounds sly and hungry instead of lost in the gloom. You can dance to it without taking off your suit.

The song got its radio debut on KROQ in Los Angeles, then reached number 15 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart and 36 in the UK. It had enough life left to be reissued in June 2005 as the album's final single, charting again at number 44 in Britain.

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