El Pintor

Interpol - El Pintor
Critic Score
Based on 34 reviews
2014 Ratings: #304 / 1042
User Score
Based on 652 ratings
2014 Rank: #314
Liked by 64 people
September 9, 2014 / Release Date
LP / Format
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CRITIC REVIEWS

91
A.V. Club

With El Pintor, its first album since the 2010 departure of founding bassist Carlos Dengler, Interpol is reborn—older, wiser, and learning to take each crisis in stride.

90
Drowned in Sound

Their belief regained and creative juices flowing at a rate of knots, Interpol have delivered their finest record in a decade with El Pintor.

90
XS Noize
One of the best releases thus far for 2014.
90
Sputnikmusic

El Pintor is a huge improvement by a band that, perhaps without the added pressure to once again succeed, would have instead spiralled further into irrelevancy.

90
musicOMH

El Pintor is sleek, minimalist and brilliantly realised, and is the band’s best work since Antics

85
The Line of Best Fit

El Pintor is immediately as comfortable and as welcome as a threadbare and favourite jumper but it only takes one entire and single minute to hear a new, renewed aerated energy to the band.

80
DIY

It’s a characteristic success and a massive delight to the fans that their return as a three-piece yields something as excellent as ‘El Pintor’. The band that could once do no wrong returns, doing a hell of a lot of things exactly right.

80
Slant Magazine

An elegantly simple, aggressive album that understands and acknowledges its own past without nostalgia or bloat.

80
The Skinny

Expansive and texturally advanced, and arguably their strongest outing since that lauded debut, this is a welcome second coming.

80
The Guardian

El Pintor finds Interpol returning to the sleek, monochrome post-punk that caused such an impact in the early 2000s.

80
NME

It would be hard to argue that Interpol are as vital as they once were - even with such an accomplished new work under their belts - but, fifth time round, they're proving there's still plenty of value in their elegantly downtrodden aesthetic.

80
PopMatters

The band sound so in their element—both in performance and song craft—that it ultimately just allows them to come out sounding more original than ever.

75
Pretty Much Amazing

Ultimately El Pintor feels a like a blast of icy fresh air after a sticky, sweltering summer’s day.

75
Crack Magazine
It's the solidity of the record, maybe only let down by an effect too many here and a small hint of predictability, that moves it away from the highest echelons.
75
Consequence of Sound

Interpol have learned to do more with a smaller bag of tricks, which means novel twists on the post-punk protocol are more noticeable than ever.

71
Northern Transmissions

You either like the band’s light-in-the-darkness version of post-punk, or you don’t. If you do however, and felt as though their self-titled was the sound of a band falling apart, El Pintor is a mostly refreshing re-pasting of the pieces that made them so compelling to begin with.

70
AllMusic

Even if it doesn't have as much of the jagged need that sparked their best work, El Pintor is Interpol's most consistent album since Antics

70
Clash

A successful exercise in getting back to where they once belonged.

70
Billboard
If they’re trying twice as hard at anything, it’s getting Interpol to sound like Interpol.
70
Spectrum Culture

No, El Pintor isn’t as good as Turn on the Bright Lights. But it’s quite good, and this new-look version of Interpol sounds like their next move will be even better.

70
Rolling Stone

Interpol still have a masterful touch with their lavishly romantic guitar fantasies: Daniel Kessler rings the chimes in his six-string cathedral, while Paul Banks rounds up another album's worth of miserable ladies to sing about.

65
Paste

El Pintor is ultimately more pleasurable than it is painful, enough of a distraction to recall how important Interpol seemed at one time and how they can still pull off the illusion of importance after all these years.

60
Exclaim!

While El Pintor is no Turn on the Bright Lights or Antics, the record finds Interpol climbing out of their mediocre rut, slowly but surely.

60
NOW Magazine
The songs are excellent in their own right, but when they’re all lined up, Interpol start seeming like a one-trick pony.
60
Under the Radar

Like an ailing canine after a reinvigorating trip to the veterinary surgeon, El Pintor has a bit more bite to it than some of Interpol's recent efforts.

60
No Ripcord

El Pintor isn’t a rekindling of old fires, more so a chilled, mutual acceptance from a band that is letting things roll as smoothly as can be.

60
The Needle Drop

After an odd fourth album, Interpol returns to form with an incredibly safe record on El Pintor.

60
The Observer
There are precious few real surprises, then, but that's not a problem when, as on Tidal Wave and current single All the Rage Back Home, Paul Banks's band craft songs that are jagged, dark yet unashamedly populist.
59
Pitchfork

With El Pintor, Interpol don’t sound as much like Interpol as they do a band that really wants to be Interpol; it’s a sad notion for anyone who once held this band’s music dear to their hearts

50
Tiny Mix Tapes

Even if the album boasts a few diverting spins of lugubrious post-punk, the weight of these spins is diminished by the knowledge that nothing is at stake, that the wearied dissatisfaction they promulgate has never and seemingly will never contribute to biographical change.

ibrokemylefttoe
63

When I was "all the rage back home" that meant that I was first in line for the human pinata list, where I was to be beaten with backyard sticks by savage, rabid three year olds with anger issues and a net worth exceeding well over $2000 (if that's not telling, idk what is). It wasn't fun but one day I fell on top of one and they got scared of me since. Might've crushed that fuckers foot but he probably deserved it.

Plats
87

This is a HUGE improvement from their previous records! "El Pintor" is a beautifully produced, well written and meticulously crafted record that takes the sound from "Turn On The Bright Lights" and upgrades it to make it fresh again. This could've been their sophomore record and it still would've succeeded!

Fav Tracks: Tidal Wave, All The Rage Back Home, Everything Is Wrong, My Desire, My Blue Supreme, Anywhere

Least Fav Track: Twice As Hard

Score:
8.7
Exceptional

reptilia0000
87

Turn on the Bright Lights 3

It's back to basics for Interpol with "El Pintor", getting rid of all of those elements that held back the previous two albums, and instead, this time around stick to doing what they do best... and that's "Turn On The Bright Lights".

And for as much as it may sound as if the album is just a straight-up re-hash of their debut, it still brings some new elements to the album and it actually stays fresh and fun for most of the time. It does have a ... read more

speedmaster
76

the Last good Interpol album and I mean that.

dreamsdefied
79

El Pintor is SUCH a breath of fresh air from Interpol's previous album (self-titled). Some people may see it as boring/repetitive, but I see it as a nice and mellow change. I'm a huge fan of the different guitar riffs featured on this album and it pulls me in a lot - especially on My Desire and Same Town, New Story.

When I first heard this album, I knocked on it but now that I've come back and listened to it a couple more times I can say it's really great! For it being their first album after ... read more

Arlo
78

i enjoy !!

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Track List

1All the Rage Back Home
4:22
90
2My Desire
5:00
86
3Anywhere
3:12
83
4Same Town, New Story
4:09
77
5My Blue Supreme
3:09
77
6Everything Is Wrong
3:32
82
7Breaker 1
4:13
78
8Ancient Ways
3:00
73
9Tidal Wave
4:17
86
10Twice As Hard
4:56
74
Total Length: 39 minutes
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Added on: June 5, 2014