In a 2018 interview with Vice, lead singer Paul Banks claimed that tensions within the band, particularly regarding Dengler's departure, made the album "hard and unpleasant to make" and that "we suffered for this record a lot".

"[5] The band formally released the music video in June 2010 on their website and mailing list, writing: "We'd like to share with you our clip for 'Lights' directed by Mr. Charlie White.

[21] Victoria Segal of Q awarded the album 4 out of 5 stars, stating that "Paul Banks's vocals [are] as attention-grabbing as a hand on the back of the neck while subtle textures rub up against the drama of the guitars", and concluded by saying that "for a band who specialise in the dark, their touch is thankfully light".

[22] Chris Coplan from Consequence gave the album 4 stars out of 5, praising the "rich narrative" and "brilliant pacing found throughout the record", and describing it as "a story that builds from an emotionally-resilient semi-joyousness in the beginning [...] to creepy, morose, and sinister by the end".

[12] Simon Vozick-Levinson of Entertainment Weekly felt that on Interpol, "the riffs [...] are grander, the rhythms more limber, and the melodies more memorably moody than they've been in years", and stated that "lapsed fans may be surprised to find themselves reminded of why they loved this band in the first place".

[14] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone called it "a surprisingly solid comeback" and praised Daniel Kessler's guitar as "the essence of arty post-punk romance".

[18] In an early track-by-track review of the album, Paul Stokes of NME wrote that the band is "as atmospheric and dark as they were on their debut, and yet more intricate, and – as the trumpets prove – orchestral".

[24] Mikael Wood of The Village Voice gave it a favorable review, and said that Interpol "manage[s] the seemingly unmanageable task of finding new wrinkles in a tightly defined sound, one that's been theirs for nearly a decade".

[25] Justin Jacobs of Paste gave the album a score of 7.3 out of 10 and stated, "Though the record meanders into aimless moping in its final third, most of the 10 tracks are bold, heavy and among Interpol's best".

[28] Alternative Press also gave the album 3 stars out of 5, and said, "Even if Banks sticks to the 'I've got two secrets but I only told you one' songwriting approach, hopefully a band shakeup will spark the soulfulness only occasionally heard in his contributions".

Paul Schrodt of Slant Magazine gave the album 2.5 stars out of 5, and said that it "may not be quite self-parody, but it's also not the sort of thing that's going to make [the band] hip again anytime soon.

He felt that "it tries to assemble skyscrapers, but ends up muddling around without a strong foundation" and noticed that Interpol sounds "both strangely distant and overly familiar, like a band struggling to remember who they are".

[19] Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune described it as "bits and pieces of promising music without strong foundations", and stated that although "the band sounds terrific", the album does not offer "more than one or two truly memorable songs".