Over the past five years the four dapper dons of Interpol have jumped from being New York local favorites to a globally respected band. They've accomplished this feat with a hardnosed work ethic - treading the boards of hundreds of venues, from Tampa to Tokyo - a flair for the dramatic, and two rapturously received albums of dark and deeply melodic rock (2002's Turn On The Bright Lights and 2004's Antics). They've graced magazine covers, inspired countless imitators, earned themselves Short List Award nominations, and enjoyed a rare kind of commercial success that has not once infringed on their effortless enigmatic quality. Every step they took seemed gradual, organic, and wildly successful. So why does album #3, the epic Our Love to Admire, feel like the start of something new? Blame vacation, for starters.

"After our last tour for Antics we took three months off for the first time since the first record," explains guitarist Daniel Kessler. "And when we reconvened, everything had changed. It was electrifying. We had to start all over again."Turn On The Bright Lights had been the culmination of four years of under-the-radar toil while Antics had been composed in the band's New York City rehearsal space between tours. After taking those few months to exhale in early 2006, for the first time Interpol gathered in Manhattan with a blank slate. Needless to say, that didn't last long. On day one, Daniel unveiled an upbeat, pogo-ing riff that, once vocalist Paul Banks, bassist Carlos D. and drummer Sam Fogarino got their teeth into it, coalesced into the album's eventual first single, the catchy kiss-off, "The Heinrich Maneuver" (which, in true New Yorker fashion, sneers at "things on the West Coast").

Although they are renowned for producing their own albums, as the songs began to stockpile, the band chose to bring on noted producer and mixer Rich Costey to co-produce. They clicked immediately, with Costey automatically understanding their language and able to help them expand the sound of the new songs.

Interpol is back, every bit as good as before but charged with a new spirit, a new direction, a new label and, most of all, a new confidence.