Interpol

Turn on the Bright Lights

May 03, 2008

By Mr. Marlowe

**** / ****

Released 2002

It is rare that Yours Truly finds himself ahead of any popular culture curve. Generally I get “in the know” about eight minutes late, about seven minutes before everyone knows, and just in time to reflect on the current situation without historical hindsight redefining the truth of the matter. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing, this stunted realization of greatness, as it allows me to avoid “the hype,” but it also means “the next big thing” is rarely identified by my hand. One of the few times I have been ahead of the curve is with Interpol’s debut album, Turn on the Bright Lights. From the first time I heard the very first note I knew this would be one of the great albums of the new millennium. And when the album’s tunes began popping up on bar playlists and the shows moved to larger venues, my suspicions were confirmed. Six years later my potentially premature hunch has been undeniably proven true: Turn on the Bright Lights is one of the great albums of the new millennium and possibly the very best so far.

When Turn on the Bright Lights debuted in August 2002 there wasn’t anything that sounded similar. The Strokes had just come to light with their own breathtaking 2001 debut, Is This It?, and The White Stripes were likewise finally getting some recognition with their sophomore release, White Blood Cells, together ushering in new millennium garage rock for the masses. However, the next wave of post-punk brooding had yet to make its appearance. Enter Interpol’s masterwork: exactly what the early millennium needed in a post-punk revitalization. Perfectly fitting into The Strokes/White Stripes/Interpol triumvirate, Turn on the Bright Lights was and continues to be an integral part in defining alternative music in the ‘00s.

Turn on the Bright Lights is that damn good because as a whole the album sets an irresistibly eerie yet aggressive tone, every song is a winner, and technically it recalls greatness in a thoroughly modern way (think Joy Division reincarnated well after the rise of Music Television). Every note on every song on Turn on the Bright Lights seems perfectly scripted, from the echoing guitar strains on the opener, Untitled, to the thumping bass drum intro on PDA, the carefully constructed, forlorn chorus and pre-chorus on The New to that songs unwieldy metallic outro, every time I hear these tunes I can’t help but wonder, “Interpol, where have you been all my life?” Between Paul Banks monotone delivery and out of this world wordplay (“yours is the only version of my desertion that I could ever subscribe to,” “it’s like learning a new language as I catch up on my mime”) and the rest of the band’s atmospheric interplay this is as good as alternative music gets. And like only the very best albums ever made, with each listen you will have a new favorite song, appreciate new elements and hidden gems, and inevitably be thoroughly engrossed and begging for more when the whole shebang wraps up 49 minutes later.

I could go on and on about how and why Turn on the Bright Light is brilliant but mere words could never do the music justice. To put it simply, Turn on the Bright Lights was an astonishing album in 2002, it is an astonishing album now, and it will be an astonishing album fifty years in the future. Only generation defining albums have that pedigree and no doubt Interpol’s Turn on the Bright Lights is exactly that type of album.

Best Songs: The New, Obstacle 1, PDA, Untitled, Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down