All the Rage Back Home

From Interpol's *El Pintor*, this track occupies their signature territory of angular guitars and brooding bass, but with a slight melodic openness that gives it a bit more daylight than their earliest material. Paul Banks' baritone is controlled and a little theatrical as always, delivering lyrics that balance romantic frustration against something larger and more diffuse — urban anxiety, the difficulty of feeling at home in your own life. The production is muscular without being punishing, with a guitar riff that hooks immediately and a rhythm section that drives hard without losing texture. There's a tension in the verses that the chorus doesn't fully release, which is characteristic of Interpol's best emotional architecture. The song lives in New York the way all Interpol music does — through association more than lyric, a downtown energy that feels borrowed from a specific moment in the city's cultural history. For late-night listening with a drink in hand.