New Interpol Album

The first two Interpol albums were great and I've been looking forward to the new one. Having listened to it I must say I'm underwhelmed. There is a review over at Pitchfork who normally get it right. The main problems are this; the drums and bass have been subdued, the deep Paul Banks vocals have been lifted too much, the songs are bloated and uneconomical and there aren't many tunes in there. One or two tracks are OK. I disagree with Pitchfork in that I like the opening track. The best track is Heinrich Maneuver and it is here that Interpol keep all the elements of their dynamic that worked on previous albums. The overall problem is that the band, in "seeking to freshen its damp atmospherics", has overstretched itself. They aren't capable of opening up their sound in the same way Joy Division did with Closer or Radiohead did with OK Computer. And the cover of this record really sucks.