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Julian Plenti
Julian Plenti is…Skyscraper
Matador Records

Plenti, AKA Paul Banks, lead singer for Interpol, wrote and performed under this name starting in 1996 to 2001. Banks then put Plenti on the back burner until 2006, when he learned how to make music with the software Logic Pro. That program freed him up to compose songs more than any other program he had tried. In 2008 he entered the Seaside Lounge recording studio to finish the songs with engineer Charles Burst, and Skyscraper was the final result.

The music and lyrics sound Interpol like in terms of the melodies and song structure, and Plenti is still trying to make sense of confusing situations lyrically, much like he does in Interpol. There are some big differences though. The music is lighter, less sharp edged, and while there are electric guitars used throughout the album, the overall sound leans towards indie folk, in the sense that these songs were acoustic songs to begin with, then electrified for Skyscraper. Banks sings without a snarl and softer than with Interpol, and the lyrics, while not exactly cheery, have none of the doom and gloom or sardonic humor that are in Interpol’s songs. In the end, this is a really good album, an album to think to, and a good companion piece to any Interpol album. [www.myspace.com/julianplentinyc]
Andrea Weiss