----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Miles Goosens" <outdoorminer@mindspring.com>
> I love Interpol - they're my favorite band of the moment, and the 
> three gigs I saw them play in 2004 were all spectacular - but the 
> Joy Division comparison has to be the reigning Critical Groupthink 
> champion.  They certainly sound like they haven't bought a record 
> since 1990, and their music seems wholly derived from the U.K. 
> postpunk milieu, of which JD/NO was certainly a part, so I'm not 
> saying the comparison is completely without merit (or that if Sam is 
> making that comparison, he's succumbing to groupthink rather than 
> making the connection all on his own).  But to these ears they've 
> always sounded far more like Kitchens of Distinction, or Echo & the 
> Bunnymen, or even the Cure.

There is one -- but only one -- point of comparison between Interpol 
and Joy Division, and a lot of the reviews I've read have been careful 
to say that it's limited to this one thing.  But there is no denying 
that at times, the guy from Interpol sounds startlingly like Ian 
Curtis, vocally.  The chorus of "Evil" is a good example: specifically 
on the lines "It took a lifespan with no cellmate" and "You're 
weightless, semi-erotic," the resemblance is pretty undeniable.

But other than that one vocal quirk, which I don't even think is 
intentional, no, they don't sound like Joy Division.

S