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Interpol's Antics
At the dawn of the 21st century, the New York City indie rock scene emerged as a beacon of artistic innovation, capturing widespread attention. Within this vibrant milieu, Interpol's second album, Antics, stands out as a landmark release.
Released in 2004, Antics initially received a spectrum of responses-acclaimed by fans yet somewhat dismissed by critics. Nevertheless, time has favored Antics, elevating it to a revered status among aficionados. Covering everything from its intricate musical craftsmanship to its innovative marketing, this book explores
Interpol's creative evolution and the album's shift toward distinct singles while preserving its atmospheric essence.
Highlighting Interpol's widespread appeal, especially in Latin America, this book examines their passionate fanbase and the cultural phenomena that emerged, showcasing the enduring bond between the band and their international audience. It also considers the global impact of Antics, underscoring the album's longevity and Interpol's role as architects of a sound that has resonated across borders and generations, cementing their place in the annals of modern music history.
Released in 2004, Antics initially received a spectrum of responses-acclaimed by fans yet somewhat dismissed by critics. Nevertheless, time has favored Antics, elevating it to a revered status among aficionados. Covering everything from its intricate musical craftsmanship to its innovative marketing, this book explores
Interpol's creative evolution and the album's shift toward distinct singles while preserving its atmospheric essence.
Highlighting Interpol's widespread appeal, especially in Latin America, this book examines their passionate fanbase and the cultural phenomena that emerged, showcasing the enduring bond between the band and their international audience. It also considers the global impact of Antics, underscoring the album's longevity and Interpol's role as architects of a sound that has resonated across borders and generations, cementing their place in the annals of modern music history.
- GenresMusic
168 pages, Paperback
Published January 22, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 24, 2026
I have wanted, or needed, a book like this for a long time. Gabriel T. Saxton-Ruiz, with his personal connections to band, really captures what it means to love Interpol.
His analysis of the songs themselves, the videos and the band's enduring popularity (especially in South America) are incredibly well-written and clearly come from a true fan of the band!
Thank you Gabriel T. Saxton-Ruiz! A must buy for any Interpol fan!
His analysis of the songs themselves, the videos and the band's enduring popularity (especially in South America) are incredibly well-written and clearly come from a true fan of the band!
Thank you Gabriel T. Saxton-Ruiz! A must buy for any Interpol fan!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Major thanks to Bloomsbury Academic and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of one of their latest in the 33 1/3 series Interpol’s Antics by Gabriel T. Saxton-Ruiz. This book embodies some of the best elements of the 33 1/3 series in that it is written by a true fan who is not only passionate and knowledgeable about the band but also has a personal connection to a member of the band. Furthermore, Saxton-Ruiz provides a descriptive and detailed analysis of the songs, while also providing some information about the factors that led to the album’s creation. However, I found the analysis and discussion of the band’s own personal connection with Latin America, and specifically with Mexico and Mexico City to be fascinating. I was not aware of this bond that Interpol has cultivated with Mexico, and with the larger connection that Latin American countries and indie rock bands. Although the chapter that details this connection is shorter, it provided an interesting segue to spark my own interest in exploring this topic further. Saxton-Ruiz also provides a few books to reference to learn more about this fascinating topic. While I loved the first Interpol album, Turn on the Bright Lights, I wasn’t as enamored with this second album, Antics. As Saxton-Ruiz’s book notes, the NYC music scene and the general rock scene in the late 90s was somewhat diffuse in that in was searching for an identity in the post-grunge void that begat bigger MTV rap-rock bands. I was fresh out of college and recently moved to a major city when Turn on the Bright Lights was released, and this is an album I identify with that time period in my life (along with some other bands and albums that were mentioned in the first few chapters of this book). While bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, and The Strokes all brought a level of rock swagger and energy, Interpol were more subdued and pulled less from classic rock. I actually appreciated their approach to music that was a little slowed down or gradually built a steady rhythm that progressed towards a climactic ending. I loved their use of reverb and delay to create this kind of icier, spacious sound and how their guitars were not really distorted but rang out. The drums and bass also steadily bridged the rhythm and melody with a sound that was clearly distinct, yet harmoniously complemented the individual parts. I remember eagerly anticipating Antics release, but I also remember downloading the album from iTunes, and not feeling the same kind of personal connection with these songs. I enjoyed the songs and felt that they were catchier, almost poppier, than those from the first album, but for whatever reason, Antics never really had the same kind of emotional imprint on my life that TOTBL did. I’m glad that I read this book because Saxton-Ruiz has provided me with an opportunity to re-evaluate my reactions to this album in his passionate defense and critical analysis of the songs and videos from this album.
I was amazed at how much Saxton-Ruiz is able to accomplish in one of these shorter 33 1/3 books that closely examine a specific album. He provides an interesting overview o the late 90s/early 2000s NYC music scene that birthed Interpol, among other bands, while also exploring how the band came together and created their first album. This leads to chapter 2, which details the creation of Antics following the first album. I appreciated Saxton-Ruiz’s use of his own interviews, podcasts, and articles to pull together a thread of how the album came about and what the band’s goals were in the creation of the album. It was also interesting to learn more about how the band functioned more democratically, ensuring that all members had a say in their publicity, the videos, photoshoots, and even song writing. This chapter was also interesting to learn about the challenges that the bands faced in the studio and how they worked to create the music and then craft the lyrics to match the song’s tones. However, the best part of chapter 2 was Saxton-Ruiz’s descriptive details analyzing the music for each track on Antics. I felt like this, along with the analysis of Interpol’s cultural significance in Mexico, were the standout aspects of this book. I loved reading his detailed descriptions of the music. The writing captures some of the emotional elements of the music, taking me back to the early/mid 2000s listening to this album as a different version of myself. Although I won’t be able to recreate that same listening experience, Saxton-Ruiz’s writing evokes that pleasant feeling of listening to powerful and compelling music at a critical moment in life. It was a pleasure to read. Chapter 3 details the accompanying art and videos that went with the album. Again, I feel like Interpol had a specific vision and aesthetic that differentiated them from many of the other bands at the time, and I specifically remember how Antics white and red cover contrasted with the black and red of TOTBL. I didn’t really watch videos at this point in my life, so I loved reading about the videos from Antics. Again, seeing how these videos were attempts to create a kind of surreal narrative or short film which the music accompanied made me want to watch these videos. Chapter 4 explores the changing nature of rock around the world and specifically focuses on how Interpol developed their large fanbase in Mexico and Peru. I found this section to be fascinating because I’m interested in culture and art, but also because I was really not aware of their large following in these countries. Saxton-Ruiz, an academic and professor, brings a detailed level of expertise understanding and analysis, yet makes his hypothesis and observations accessible by using personal and popular examples with which readers may be familiar or relate. Furthermore, he provides some additional texts to consult to further investigate this phenomenon. However, I hope that he decides to expand on this idea in his own book. I think he might be able to contribute further to the discussion.
Interpol’s Antics is a great addition to the 33 1/3 collection. I was a little surprised to see this album on here since I thought that Antics wasn’t as great as TOTBL; however, Saxton-Ruiz makes a compelling case for why this album is not only a great one, but also why it is culturally significant in countries like Mexico and Peru. His writing is descriptive and detailed, while also adding critical analysis and insightful discussions. Highly recommended!
I was amazed at how much Saxton-Ruiz is able to accomplish in one of these shorter 33 1/3 books that closely examine a specific album. He provides an interesting overview o the late 90s/early 2000s NYC music scene that birthed Interpol, among other bands, while also exploring how the band came together and created their first album. This leads to chapter 2, which details the creation of Antics following the first album. I appreciated Saxton-Ruiz’s use of his own interviews, podcasts, and articles to pull together a thread of how the album came about and what the band’s goals were in the creation of the album. It was also interesting to learn more about how the band functioned more democratically, ensuring that all members had a say in their publicity, the videos, photoshoots, and even song writing. This chapter was also interesting to learn about the challenges that the bands faced in the studio and how they worked to create the music and then craft the lyrics to match the song’s tones. However, the best part of chapter 2 was Saxton-Ruiz’s descriptive details analyzing the music for each track on Antics. I felt like this, along with the analysis of Interpol’s cultural significance in Mexico, were the standout aspects of this book. I loved reading his detailed descriptions of the music. The writing captures some of the emotional elements of the music, taking me back to the early/mid 2000s listening to this album as a different version of myself. Although I won’t be able to recreate that same listening experience, Saxton-Ruiz’s writing evokes that pleasant feeling of listening to powerful and compelling music at a critical moment in life. It was a pleasure to read. Chapter 3 details the accompanying art and videos that went with the album. Again, I feel like Interpol had a specific vision and aesthetic that differentiated them from many of the other bands at the time, and I specifically remember how Antics white and red cover contrasted with the black and red of TOTBL. I didn’t really watch videos at this point in my life, so I loved reading about the videos from Antics. Again, seeing how these videos were attempts to create a kind of surreal narrative or short film which the music accompanied made me want to watch these videos. Chapter 4 explores the changing nature of rock around the world and specifically focuses on how Interpol developed their large fanbase in Mexico and Peru. I found this section to be fascinating because I’m interested in culture and art, but also because I was really not aware of their large following in these countries. Saxton-Ruiz, an academic and professor, brings a detailed level of expertise understanding and analysis, yet makes his hypothesis and observations accessible by using personal and popular examples with which readers may be familiar or relate. Furthermore, he provides some additional texts to consult to further investigate this phenomenon. However, I hope that he decides to expand on this idea in his own book. I think he might be able to contribute further to the discussion.
Interpol’s Antics is a great addition to the 33 1/3 collection. I was a little surprised to see this album on here since I thought that Antics wasn’t as great as TOTBL; however, Saxton-Ruiz makes a compelling case for why this album is not only a great one, but also why it is culturally significant in countries like Mexico and Peru. His writing is descriptive and detailed, while also adding critical analysis and insightful discussions. Highly recommended!
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November 2, 2025Unlike the awestruck author, Interpol are nowhere near my favourite band, and even within that, I'd generally take the post-hedonic exhaustion of their third album over its breakthrough predecessor. But Antics is the one with the hit so, for all the series' air of indie seriousness, that's the one which tends to get a 33 1/3. Though I was interested that my perception of 'the hit' is apparently not the standard one; Slow Hands gets acknowledged as a favourite here, but the laurels go to Evil, which apart from the various chart successes lovingly enumerated, apparently "infiltrated pop culture, popping up in The 100, Entourage, Grey's Anatomy, The O.C., and even the 2022 horror film Orphan: First Kill." No, me either. And the bathetic ending of that list goes some of the way to explaining why I found the early chapters of this so trying. Saxton-Ruiz knew the band's Paul Banks from school, though there's a nagging suspicion that he thinks they're bigger buddies than Banks does. And along with other factors, this combines to push him into a puppyish enthusiasm for the band in general and this era in particular which makes it seem like a bit when he praises his old mate's "allergy to cliché", because his own prose seems magnetically attractive to them, starting with a night "as electrifying as it was unforgettable" at Mexico City's Zócalo, a venue whose stats and past stars are breathlessly extolled in a manner more suitable for a press release. I know that, having grown up on the dying glow of the great British music press, I can be prone to regarding US music writing as a choice of failure modes, but this is sorry stuff.
Mercifully, once we get to the in-depth song-by-song analysis which should be the heart of any 33 1/3 without a particularly strong concept, matters improve vastly. The attempts at analysing the lyrics can sometimes slip into the earnestness which constitutes another of those failure modes (I've always taken it as read that Interpol lyrics were more vibes than codes to be cracked), but when it comes to the specifics of the music, how given sounds translate to particular emotional effects, he's very good – this despite having earlier expressed some defeatist sentiments regarding the possibility of writing meaningfully about music, which mostly made me think, well why on Earth are you doing this book, then? There's also some solid behind the scenes info, though not being a hardcore fan, I couldn't tell you how new it is. And when we hear about the band's perfectionism, how a line comprising four words was pieced together from as many vocal takes, I feel like there's another story that could have been explored about the way music which sounds so disaffected was pieced together with such obsession. See also the record label guy's recollection that "It felt like I was in a board meeting – like they were four businessmen who happened to be in the business of making music, and who were very serious about their art." I was reminded here of the Radiophonic Workshop 33 1/3, its fascination with the way that people going to an office job in suits were making more radical sounds than any number of bands living out the expected rock star lifestyle. Antics, though, leaves that statement largely unexamined, and moves on.
But at least by this point it's moving on to somewhere interesting and new. By the end, we do return to that Zócalo gig from the book's unpromising beginning, but this time via an examination of the band's devoted Latin American fanbase, their networks and meme culture. And once we're back at the show, this time it feels like a glorious moment in emotional rather than marketing terms. There's half of an excellent 33 1/3 in here; I just wish I hadn't had to fight my way through those opening chapters to get to it.
Oh, and if you're wondering about the key questions in any discussion of Interpol: yes, there's plenty about how cool Carlos looked (though Saxton-Ruiz may be the first person in a while to quote an Azaelia Banks tweet as supporting evidence of anything other than Azaelia Banks having gone very wrong); and yes, the book does remind readers that Paul Banks released a mixtape called Everybody On My Dick Like They Supposed To Be.
(Netgalley ARC)
Mercifully, once we get to the in-depth song-by-song analysis which should be the heart of any 33 1/3 without a particularly strong concept, matters improve vastly. The attempts at analysing the lyrics can sometimes slip into the earnestness which constitutes another of those failure modes (I've always taken it as read that Interpol lyrics were more vibes than codes to be cracked), but when it comes to the specifics of the music, how given sounds translate to particular emotional effects, he's very good – this despite having earlier expressed some defeatist sentiments regarding the possibility of writing meaningfully about music, which mostly made me think, well why on Earth are you doing this book, then? There's also some solid behind the scenes info, though not being a hardcore fan, I couldn't tell you how new it is. And when we hear about the band's perfectionism, how a line comprising four words was pieced together from as many vocal takes, I feel like there's another story that could have been explored about the way music which sounds so disaffected was pieced together with such obsession. See also the record label guy's recollection that "It felt like I was in a board meeting – like they were four businessmen who happened to be in the business of making music, and who were very serious about their art." I was reminded here of the Radiophonic Workshop 33 1/3, its fascination with the way that people going to an office job in suits were making more radical sounds than any number of bands living out the expected rock star lifestyle. Antics, though, leaves that statement largely unexamined, and moves on.
But at least by this point it's moving on to somewhere interesting and new. By the end, we do return to that Zócalo gig from the book's unpromising beginning, but this time via an examination of the band's devoted Latin American fanbase, their networks and meme culture. And once we're back at the show, this time it feels like a glorious moment in emotional rather than marketing terms. There's half of an excellent 33 1/3 in here; I just wish I hadn't had to fight my way through those opening chapters to get to it.
Oh, and if you're wondering about the key questions in any discussion of Interpol: yes, there's plenty about how cool Carlos looked (though Saxton-Ruiz may be the first person in a while to quote an Azaelia Banks tweet as supporting evidence of anything other than Azaelia Banks having gone very wrong); and yes, the book does remind readers that Paul Banks released a mixtape called Everybody On My Dick Like They Supposed To Be.
(Netgalley ARC)
October 27, 2025
Bloomsbury Publishing's 33 1/3 series presents deep dives on music albums written by fans, critics, academics, musicians and many others. Their focus depends on the author, and for Interpol's Antics, (apparently the 201st entry?) Professor of Latin American Literature and Culture, Gabriel t Saxton-Ruiz we get a summation of the band's formation and first album, the process of recording Antics, a technical break down of the album track by track, how the album was released and the music videos made to support it, and the legacy of the album in the band's continued career.
Highly readable, Saxton-Ruiz draws from his personal memories, having known Daniel Kessler in high school, the contemporary reviews of the album on release and the growing body of work about 2000s music such as Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001- 2011. The sections take their titles from lyrics of different Antics songs.
Antics is now more than twenty years old, and I was there for the launch and reception, and its been an album that has stayed in rotation. As is pointed out several times, Interpol was coming off being a buzz band for their first album and had to face the dread of a possible sophomore slump, and as Saxton-Ruiz rightfully argues, Interpol avoided it completely, still touring with only one line-up change since. They've gone from being labelled as sounds like Joy Division, to being their own band that can be named dropped on their own for hall marks of their sound. They are still producing albums and touring the world.
Recommended to fans of Interpol, NYC based bands, contemporary rock & roll .
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
Highly readable, Saxton-Ruiz draws from his personal memories, having known Daniel Kessler in high school, the contemporary reviews of the album on release and the growing body of work about 2000s music such as Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001- 2011. The sections take their titles from lyrics of different Antics songs.
Antics is now more than twenty years old, and I was there for the launch and reception, and its been an album that has stayed in rotation. As is pointed out several times, Interpol was coming off being a buzz band for their first album and had to face the dread of a possible sophomore slump, and as Saxton-Ruiz rightfully argues, Interpol avoided it completely, still touring with only one line-up change since. They've gone from being labelled as sounds like Joy Division, to being their own band that can be named dropped on their own for hall marks of their sound. They are still producing albums and touring the world.
Recommended to fans of Interpol, NYC based bands, contemporary rock & roll .
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
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January 25, 2026I love reading about music, and this book does a stellar job exploring the personal and cultural world surrounding Interpol’s sophomore album, ANTICS. I loved the personal connections the author had to band members and the music itself—his stories lent warmth and human interest to the topic. I also found the larger cultural conversation and, in particular, and ties with the Latinx community to be an interesting element of the book. The author writes about music in a lyrical, sensory way. I enjoyed this deep dive into ANTICS—another worthy entry to the 33 1/3 imprint.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thanks to the publisher for the early NetGalley read. Within the 331/3 series this is one of the good ones. The author actually was a friend/acquaintance of singer Paul Banks. The backstory and analysis of the songs is top notch. If I had to quibble I’d recommend leaving discussion of the Antics remix EP on the cutting room floor as well as the larger discussion of the 3 music videos, none of which are crucial to the understanding or enjoyment of Antics. ¡Viva los Interpoleros!
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