The Other Side of Make-Believe
| Interpol
The Other Side of Make-Believe
The Other Side of Make-Believe is the seventh studio album by American rock band Interpol, released on July 15, 2022, through Matador Records. Produced by Mark "Flood" Ellis and mixed by Alan Moulder, the album was recorded between September 2021 and January 2022 at Battery Studios in London. The songs "Toni", "Something Changed", "Fables", and "Gran Hotel" were released as singles in promotion of the album. The album title comes from the opening lyrics of the track "Passenger". -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
With slight changes in disposition and geography, the New York band strives toward a refreshed sound and outlook on its seventh record.
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Spin
The New York natives still crank out solemn anthems on their seventh LP but also express an unexpected tenderness.
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Rolling Stone
Frontman Paul Banks gives his voice a rest on the long-running post-punk band’s seventh album, allowing more breathing room for the music.
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NME
subtle explorations of mood, rhythm and romance.
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PopMatters
Interpol’s The Other Side of Make-Believe has its share of moments that sound good while they’re playing but just can’t make a lasting impression after they stop.
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The Guardian
One of the definitive New York buzz bands of the 00s, the trio relax their tense mood – just a little – on an album of pleasures and longeurs.
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Sputnik Music
This is easily one of the best albums of 2022, and it stands up to some of Interpol’s greatest works, but with time The Other Side of Make-Believe could well be my favourite album from them. In fairness, this album feels like the natural continuation from El Pintor, so if you felt disappointed by Marauder, fear not, Interpol have made amends by delivering another milestone album for you to enjoy.
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Riot Magazine
Their best work occurs when they loosen up a bit, and – to put it simply – chill.
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Louder Than War
Interpol return with album number seven, one which breaks from their past to shift to something that flows more naturally, opening the door to a new sense of freedom.
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AllMusic
By turns frustrating and engaging, The Other Side of Make-Believe is decidedly uneven, especially coming after the frequently great Marauder. Nevertheless, it offers plenty of mood and a little bit of innovation from a band still revealing nuances to their sound 20 years after their debut.
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DIY Magazine
This is an album that asks for patience, and only on occasion is it duly rewarded.
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Clash Magazine
The band’s first new album in four years, ‘The Other Side Of Make-Believe’ finds Interpol channelling a unique sense of isolation, one that existed long before terms such as ‘lockdown’ came into our lives. A record packed with solitary voices, the New Yorkers seem to amplify their ability to capture the beauty in melancholy, stripping back the paint of the everyday to reveal the extraordinary underneath.
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XS Noize
Interpol's The Other Side of Make Believe is an impressive and welcome return for the band from an involuntary hiatus. Interpol has always delivered a sophisticated knowing, often accomplished using their trademark dark humour. In this outing, they provide that vibe in a more human and less cynical way. Writing in surroundings of uncertainty and despair found the band members wanting to add hope to their mix. Interpol never rests on their laurels as they fully believe there is always an nth or, in this case, seventh time to make a first impression. The offering finds Interpol, in the end, still in great shape with their methods refined and still intact. The Other Side of Make Believe will thrill their fans and win them, new listeners.
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Riff Magazine
It’s a must-listen on headphones to get the full sense of just how much is going on. The soaring melodies of “Go Easy (Palermo)” takes the record home on a quieter and more somber note.
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The Upcoming
The Other Side of Make-Believe is undoubtedly Interpol’s greatest attempt at an uplifting album to date, and whilst the Manhattan trio teeter on the brink of breaking new ground, the result instead is a subdued reinvention. Now seven albums and a quarter-of-a-century into their career, with a dedicated fan base and a firmly entrenched cult status, it’s not difficult to understand why Interpol chose not to depart too far from the sound of their earlier work.
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Treblezine
The Other Side of Make-Believe is a tonally discordant departure for a band that is well known for trading in chic gloom. Its departure proves arresting, playing with a broadness in their sound that perhaps as younger artists they weren’t as tolerant of. With rhythms that surprise and a mix that belies expectations, the album offers some respite both from tradition and the wariness of a world in decline, despite its sense of wanderlust. Trading icy swagger and sonic familiarity for boundary dissolution is never an easy thing to do, let alone doing it so well. But beyond those boundaries is a balm of sorts, a desperately needed one.
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mxdwn Music
Despite some bumps within the album, Interpol certainly has delivered with their most recent release of The Other Side of Make-Believe. This album is worth the listen for both any old-school fans or fans just joining the Interpol party.
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Beats Per Minute
This is the most Berlin they’ve ever sounded, hints of Television, Iggy, Bowie and Christian Death integrated within a mysterious alchemical process. Anyone who allows this album into their heart will soon find themselves poisoned by a sense that things never were quite like what we perceived them to be.
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Hotpress
Perhaps it is too simplistic to herald this as Interpol Mark II. But, as they repeatedly intone on the closing track – “Go easy, go easy” – an altered path is certainly being forged.
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Spectrum Culture
There are some memorable, but plenty of forgettable, moments on Interpol’s familiar-sounding seventh album.
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Loud and Quiet
Ultimately, The Other Side does reasonably well to keep audiences engaged. However, it’s an album with plenty of great moments rather than a great album from start to finish.
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Gigwise
It may well be a more peaceful affair than the fervour of their earlier releases, but on their seventh album, Interpol reconnect with an engrossing, potent power of enrapture they’ve always had, just through an intriguingly different avenue.
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Cryptic Rock
Many bands have definitely made great impressions especially during their so-called legacy days. That in mind, only a few have been able to carve a long and productive path over the years. Interpol is one of those bands. The Other Side of Make-Believe is yet another proof of that…believe it or not.
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Northern Transmissions
It’s nice to see a band so long into their career seeming like they actually care about what they do. While The Other Side of Make-Believe probably won’t light the music world up like the bands first couple releases, it’s such a strong addition to an already strong repertoire of music that fans, old and new alike, will all have something to celebrate.
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Far Out Magazine
There are highs and lows on the record, but it never falls below the eye-line of a very curious interest. You might not be wheeling it out in 20 years’ time, but to be this far into a creative splurge and still upholding the integrity of a sound that swamps the mind with obfuscated allure is a feat in itself. If this was a debut, it would certainly be lauded, and 20 years in I’ll be taking my hat off to it all the same, And after that, once more, I’ll be trying to figure it out at 2am, sat on the kitchen tiles, perched up against cabinets, and revelling in the perfectly perverse sound.
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Stereoboard
It’s 7-Up for Interpol with the release of ‘The Other Side of Make-Believe’ but unfortunately there’s a distinct lack of fizz this time around, despite the presence of heavyweight producers Flood and Alan Moulder. It all feels distinctly average, despite Banks’ hopeful claims that “there’s always a seventh time for a first impression”. Coming out of a depressing time, maybe that’s no surprise. In that respect, let’s hope the next few years are kinder to us all and, in Interpol’s case, that they can rediscover the spark that is currently fizzling out.
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The Line of Best Fit
The Other Side of Make Believe is an Interpol ready for the new age. It’s proved they can move onto album seven – even when the world was forcing everyone apart – and amidst side projects and other endeavours, the trio are a staple the world would do better to relish in since they deliver a high quality every time without sacrificing any of that brooding integrity we all so know and love.
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musicOMH
Two decades on from their debut Turn On The Bright Lights comes this dependably great album from a dependably great band.
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Mystic Sons
It may not have the same visceral impact of their more renowned offerings, but 'The Other Side Of Make-Believe' still makes for a rousing listen from start to finish. With frontman Paul Banks remaining the cohesive gel of the band's tone, it moves with a elegance to it that many others in their field never usually come close to.
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The Fire Note
Early listens to The Other Side of Make-Believe all you could hear is what was missing from what has come to define Interpol’s sound, based on their early, energetic, somewhat groundbreaking efforts. Digging into the tracks, catching more of the band’s instrumental engagement at work below the melodic surface, and getting a sense for ways that the trio is growing and evolving here on these more intimate, accessible recordings, reveals a more nuanced, engaging approach. Given the pace of life at the speed of light, perhaps we could all use permission to “Go Easy.”
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The Arts Desk
It's an album that exudes darker hues, but carries a newfound gracefulness, to match the human perseverance of the pandemic years.
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Sacred Exile
Will this record make someone who has bought and enjoyed every other Interpol album insanely happy? Absolutely without question. Interpol is a band that has found its core sound and is content to make albums that are variations on a very serviceable theme, but unless they continue to evolve, the band will find that not only do they fail to expand their base, but they will suffer the loss of grass-roots fans.
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Under the Radar Magazine
The stratospheric success and acclaim of the first two Interpol albums, Turn on the Bright Lights (2002) and Antics (2004), set some lofty standards. In truth, their subsequent projects have come up short in comparison. As Banks sings in “Toni,” “The aim now is perfection always.” Interpol has never been about perfection. The band made their mark by capturing the seedy NYC zeitgeist, creating a mood, a spirit, a kind of frenzied, twilight energy. There is no doubt that The Other Side of Make-Believe remains distinctly Interpol, and that is a good thing. Twenty years on from their debut, the band have endured, continuing to produce tight rhythms and shadowy urban soundscapes.
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The Irish Times
Older, wiser and maturing like fine wine, they are one of this century’s most enduring and special bands.
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Record Collector
This lightly envelope-pushing seventh album finds that elusive new sweet spot in bringing to the fore a somewhat alien concept: hope. With the help of super producer Flood, the band used lockdown distance to change up their jam-the-songs-out approach, letting some light through the cracks. Daniel Kessler’s guitar lines remain inventively distinctive, but a gentleness now exudes from Paul Banks’ voice, and his pseudo-absurdist lyrics consider that things might not be so bad after all.
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The Indiecator
It’s hard to be too negative about The Other Side of Make-Believe, since Banks meant for the album to have “more of an optimistic, airy, hopeful and anthemic quality at times than any of our previous work.” It does have a “breezier” feel to it, and the track “Gran Hotel” pays tribute to the “streets of Cozumel” in Mexico (the country with arguably the biggest Interpol fanbase). Listeners probably will grasp this general shift in tone, but that’s about the only impression the album will leave.
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Tinnitist
Two decades after Turn On The Bright Lights, the New York indie-rock hipsters head into darker and deeper terrain — and emerge with their most illuminating release.
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