"We ain't going to the town, we're goin' to the city" opens Interpol [ tickets ]'s second release, another paean to the streets of New York.

"Antics" is a new collection of songs with the same unique, slow-fused dynamics that made the New York band's 2002 debut a joy. If it's not the dark, thrilling music, it's the monotone-yet-earnest singing of Paul Banks.

Almost all of the tracks on "Antics" feature a careful musical formula marked by random surges of intensity. Take, for instance, "Evil," on which Banks sings "Rosemary / Heaven restores you in life / Coming with me / Through the aging, the fear and the strife," building to the full chorus: "It took a life spent / with no cellmate / The long way back / Saying meanwhile can't we look the other way." It's high-low lyrical assemblies like this that get your attention.

What gives these dirge-ridden compositions a unique feel are the heartfelt lyrics that accompany them. The centerpiece, "Take You On A Cruise" opens with Banks--backed by a post-punk sea of rhythm and sound--asking, "Would you like to be my missus and a future with child?" then pondering, "Baby won't you try to find me?" and, finally, ending with the mysterious musings of, "I am the scavenger between the sheets of union."

Interpol has truly found its own unique way of interpreting times when hope and despair can sometimes walk hand in hand.