The members of Interpol: Polls routinely suggest that one thing people want in a President is the ability to withstand adversity with grace and poise. We already know how our current President responds to stress: he kills a few Arabs, and shortly, he feels much better. I shouldn't need to point out just how unfortunate this is. The guys from Interpol, meanwhile, have responded to the stress of a very successful debut by producing a gently sweeping, incredibly emotional sophomore album which is already meeting with the sort of backlash that will only serve to build character and make excellent Presidents of them all.

I'm sorry, did I say "only"? The backlash will not only do this; it will also piss me the fuck off. You can tell from the tone people are taking that they've been sitting around for months rubbing their hands together like flies watching a dog squat in the yard, just waiting to sniff loudly and announce that Antics is "disappointing." What is it about indie people that makes them even more bloodthirsty about backlashing than even old-school hip-hop heads? If you liked a band's debut, give the second one a few months to sink in before kvetching about how it doesn't live up to the impossible standard set by a debut with which you've already lived for over a year. I shudder to think about how In the Aeroplane Over the Sea would've been received by any of the people who went ballistic for it had any of them actaully bought On Avery Island in 1995.