Julian Plenti — Julian Plenti Is... Skyscraper

Interpol might be the first band in ages to use the word "hiatus" and actually mean it, rather than using it as a euphemism for "break-up."

Although they apparently have a fourth album on the go, the quartet are making good use of their time away from each other: with Carlos D making art-house films and Sam Fogarino making indie-pop dreams with Magnetic Morning (guitarist Daniel Kessler is strangely AWOL), frontman Paul Banks indulges his solo side with the enigmatically-titled Julian Plenti Is... Skyscraper.

If a pseudonym like "Julian Plenti" sounds like a lounge singer to you, you wouldn't exactly be wrong. Those looking for more of Interpol's frantic post-punk will instead find smooth melodies, smoother vocals and plenty of Casiotone. Banks' bizarre wordplay works well on tracks like "No Chance Survival" and "Girl On The Sporting News," even though he can't seem to shake his half-hypnotizing, half-annoying tendency to just repeat the same damn lines for three minutes straight.

True enough, sometimes the New Yorker can't help but go with what he knows — "Games For Days" has that same anxious feel as anything his band has done, but with less polish and additional edge. Yet there are a few obvious cuts — "Unwind" among them especially — in which Banks definitely relishes going outside of Interpol's defined lines, utilizing a marching drumbeat, fuzzed-out vocals and one incredibly wacky horn section. Think big-band parade filtered through a keyboard's sampler function.

No one will mistake this for Interpol, but no one will ever mistake those distinct vocals — a baritone voice at times fragile, at times desperate — as anyone but Banks. In that way, he has succeeded in creating something completely different from his day job, but has managed to put his own familiar stamp on it regardless. It's not quite a success for those chomping at the bit for more Interpol, but a musician's personal success nonetheless.

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