Untouched: Julian Plenti- Paul Banks finds a release…

Julian Plenti- Fun That We Have (Link 2)

Paul Banks is a most introverted frontman. Brooding, melancholy and with his distinctive baritone voice, he cut a lonely figure, even amongst the other members of Interpol. He is, however, willing to put out and take risks.

Banks (along with the rest of us) has clearly become disillusioned with Interpol’s sound, seemingly stuck in a time warp. As an escape, he created ‘Julian Plenti’, an alias. There were no attempts to hide his identity, so I’m saying this is just a process he wants to go through… a re-invention, if you like. It all looks carefully planned to be spontaneous…

Julian Plenti Is… Skyscraper, his solo album, is said to be a ‘cocky, sexy’ collection of songs. ‘Fun That We Have’, the first song to appear, is experimental, juggling different tempos and directions. It is, also, however, absolute rubbish. The first 30 seconds are extremely promising, but then Banks sees fit to insert tacky electronic bleeps and spurious guitar chords at random, essentially ruining the rest of the song. I applaud the concept behind this, and if anyone is going to pull Interpol out of their current sound, Banks is the man. I really can’t let this one slide, though…

Plenti is signed to Matador records, who debuted a free download of the song today… Julian Plenti is… Skyscraper is out on 4th August.