Interpol fans have waited over three years for an original new album, and this year, their wishes will finally be answered, in the form of a brand new 2010 album. A little over a year ago, on March 6, 2009, the group officially announced on their website that they were heading back into the famed Electric Lady Studios in New York to begin work on their fourth album. In an interview with Paste last fall, drummer Sam Fogarino said that the sound on Interpol's new 2010 album represents a return to their roots, and will sound a lot more like their debut LP, 'Turn on the Bright Lights.' Fogarino was somewhat surprisingly candid in the assessment of their last album, 2007's 'Our Love to Admire,' saying it "was not our most cohesive moment." With a clear intent to depart from that, then, the New York-based rockers set about creating a record that, as Fogarino says, "falls back to the first." The drummer went on to elaborate, "In trying to move forward, there was an unspoken realization that you can't let go of your sonic-defining tag. There was an effort in Daniel [Kessler]'s guitar tone; he rediscovered it playing in his loft space for a year without anybody. The quality of that tone, played in a big room, is just beautiful. It creates an atmosphere ... That big wash of reverb? It's back."
In December, however, Paul Banks gave a slightly different take on the new album's sound. As he told BBC6, the album is notable more for its "elegant orchestral," and "atmospheric" sounds than anything else. Citing the "crazy sophisticated levels of orchestration" that bassist Carlos Dengler brought into the studio, Banks said the new 2010 album should be a "real step forward," and claimed that it "certainly doesn't sound like anything we've ever done before."
So far, there hasn't been any word on an official release date, although NME reports that the album should be out sometime "later this year." Until then, fans can catch a glimpse of Interpol this summer, as the indie rockers will be opening for U2 on several shows along the group's North American tour.