A Short Column About Music 1.22.09: Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights

Posted by Andrew Moll on 01.22.2009

It's up to me now, turn on the bright lights.

So now he can officially be called President Obama. Pretty crazy, if I do say so myself. Although, the world hasn't changed overnight and the economy is still in the dumps, so I'm beginning to doubt the President's Jesus-like abilities. I feel like I've been duped, in a way. I expected a utopia to suddenly pop up right at Noon eastern. Consider me disappointed. What I was not disappointed in was Slumdog Millionaire, which I saw over the weekend, and is probably the best movie of the year for me, passing The Dark Knight. If it's playing in your area, do what you can to go and see it, because the movie is more than worth it. Not at the level ofNo Country for Old Men or There Will Be Blood, but still damn good.









Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
Released: August 19, 2002
Tracklisting:
1. Untitled
2. Obstacle 1
3. NYC
4. PDA
5. Say Hello to the Angels
6. Hands Away
7. Obstacle 2
8. Stella Was a Diver and She Wa Always Down
9. Roland
10. The New
11. Leif Erikson


Joy Division.

There, I got that out of the way. See, when Interpol started getting popular earlier this decade, the comparisons to Joy Division and other early 1980s post-punk bands were obligatory. The band was part of a post-punk revival that emerged in the early 2000s and included such acts as Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Interpol themselves formed in New York City in 1998, with some of the band made up of NYU students. The band self-released a series of EPs over the next few years before signing to Matador Records. The band had started to wear suits while performing on stage which furthered their image as a New York hipster band, while at the same time giving them an aura similar to British post-punk bands like Gang of Four. That combined with their jagged guitars and somewhat dour sound reminded many people of Joy Division. In addition, the voice of guitarist and lead singer Paul Banks was a deep baritone that sounded at times extremely similar to Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis. Of course, in a larger sense, Interpol sounded nothing like Joy Division, there were enough common threads for people to call the band a ripoff.

Despite those feelings, the band still gained critical acclaim for their self-titled EP, released in June 2002. The songs helped forward the band's sound from simple post-punk revival, and their debut full-length saw the band take another big step forward. Released in August 2002, Turn On the Bright Lights received immediate critical acclaim and made Interpol one of the top indie acts in rock. "Untitled" kicks things off with its hypnotic and atmospheric guitar opening, as the reverb provides a slow build and drums and bass start filling in the gaps. Then singer Banks comes in and repeats a simple refrain of "Surprise, sometimes, will come around." The song reaches its apex before fading back down, with the same atmospheric guitars closing out one of the best album openers of the decade.

It's followed by "Obstacle 1" with its angular riffs helping to frame Banks' lovelorn, yet sexy, tale as he sings "But it's different now that I'm poor and aging/I'll never see this face again/You'll go stabbing, yourself in, the neck." Later in the song, Banks lets it all loose, singing "It's in the way that she poses/It's in the things that she puts in my hair/Her stories are boring and stuff/She's always calling my bluff/She puts the, she puts the weights in to my little heart/And she gets in my room and she takes it apart/She puts the weights into my little heart/I said she puts the weights into my little heart." There's a large amount of tension throughout the song that never gets resolved and that becomes a theme in the album.



"Obstacle 1"


"NYC" is another song filled with tension, but instead of an angry tension, it's a dark and gloomy tension, the type a person feels when circumstances are at their most uneventful. Banks reflects that feeling as he sings "I had seven faces/Thought I knew which one to wear/But I'm sick of spending these lonely nights/Training myself not to care/The subway is a porno/Pavements they are a mess/I know you've supported me for a long time/Somehow I'm not impressed/But New York cares." The echo effect on the vocals helps add to distance that he feel for everything but his hometown. The lyrics get more upbeat once Banks proclaims "It's up to me now, turn on the bright lights" and it appears he wants to do everything to improve his situation. But the mood doesn't get much more upbeat, like the statement is something he wants to do, but may not actually do.

Things pick back up with "PDA" which has the most energy of any song yet on the album. Banks opens the song by singing "Yours is the only version of my desertion that I could ever subscribe to/That is all that I can do/You are a past dinner, the last winner I'm raping all around me/Until the last drop is behind you," before adding "You're so cute when you're frustrated, dear/You're so cute when you're sedated, dear/I missed you." There is a groove to this song that made it the song that initially broke Interpol, and it was a great choice for the lead single. But there is still tension here, in the lyrics and music. The extended jam at the end of the song never fully resolves itself, not the mention the previous four minutes of confessions, accusations, and jagged guitar riffs that makes a song that is great and also filled with "nervous energy," as Allmusic described it.



"PDA"


The first verse of "Say Hello to the Angels" seems to promise a sunnier, upbeat song, but that's not Interpol's style. Banks sings "I want your silent parts/The parts that the birds love/I know there's such a place/I had my back turned/You didn't realize I'm lonely." He then moves swiftly through the rapid-fire chorus of "When I'm feeling lazy, it's probably because/I'm saving all my energy to pick up when you/Move into my airspace." Tension is another factor in this song, but this time it's sexual tension as Banks sings "Each night, I bury my love around you." After the somber "Hands Away", we get another song filled with sexual tension, "Obstacle 2", which carries no correlation to "Obstacle 1" other than song title. The opening goes "I'm gonna pull you in close, gonna wrap you up tight/Gonna play with the braids that you came here with tonight/I'm gonna hold your face and toast the snow that fell/Because friends don't waste wine when there's words to sell." This song is also an example of the band's ability to simply let loose and rock. The tension is present, as is a certain amount of melodrama, but the riffs are great and memorable and the drums and bass are always tight and melodic. This ability helps separate Interpol from other bands just looking imitate artists they like.

The epic and sweeping "Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down" is next, introduced by Banks before the emotional guitars start up. The momentum builds to the chorus of "She was all right because the sea was so airtight, she broke away," before coming back down. The band has already teased the listener into a big moment, but at the same time is able to make the lead up just as memorable and important. As the song moves forward, Banks channels the spirit of Marlon Brando, yelling "Stella, oh Stella!" Then the song takes a breath, allowing everything to prepare for the big cathartic moment, where Banks sings with everything he has, "Stella, I love you/Stella, I love you/Stella, I love you!" with increasing emotion on each line. After every other song left moments of tension to float, this song pays off the tension with an emotional moment. But the song doesn't end there, with a slow journey to the end where Banks adds "Well, she was my catatonic sex toy, love-joy diver." Also, this a song where Interpol gives in to their influences, where the refrain of "She broke away" is taken from Joy Division's "She's Lost Control."



"Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down"


"Roland" brings back the tension and nervous energy even with the opening riff as it waits to let loose, and eventually does as Banks sings "My best friend's a butcher, he has sixteen knives/He carries them all over the town at least he tries/Oh look, it stopped snowing." The guitar tunings on this one echo Sonic Youth quite a bit. The song is able to be serious and playful at the same time as the band rocks out once again and Banks sings "He severed segments and secretely liked that/He always had the time to speak with me, I liked him for that."

Interpol goes for something resembling a ballad on "The New." It says a lot that band that is usually seen as dour and sad is able to right such a good love song and put genuine emotion behind it, while at the same making it sound similar to the rest of their work and not out of place. Banks is as open as he has been at any other point on the album as his baritone is perfect for lines like "I wish I could live free/I hope it's not beyond me/Settling down it takes time/One day we'll live together/And life will be better/I have it here yeah in my mind/Baby, you know someday you'll slow." Of course, the ballad part only takes up the first half of the song, as a killer distorted riff comes in and completely changes the mood of the song and the lyrics, like when Banks sings "You're looking alright tonight, I think we should go." The music completely alters how the lyrics are interpreted, and it's done very effectively here.

The album finishes with "Leif Erikson", and again sexual tension is present. But there's no great energy to it, as that aspect seems to have disappeared in favor of a thoughtful look at sex and relationships. The line "But if your life is such a big joke, why should I care?" could be seen as angry, but it's not sung with any venom. Instead the song is caught somewhere between love and sadness. The last lines of the song sum it up well, with Banks singing "She says brief things, her love's a pony/My love's subliminal." For all the emotion present in each song, there is something lurking underneath each track on the album, like the band isn't showing all their cards. That sense of mystery ties the album together and creates a wonderful persona for the group. Not to mention, the band is also more than capable of writing and performing great rocks. The persona and songs would be good on their own, but combined they help make one of this decade's best rock acts.

Turn On the Bright Lights got a number of rave reviews and Interpol quickly became ont ehc ountry's top indie rock bands. At the end of the year Pitchfork Media would name the album as their best of the year, and it appeared on many other Best Of lists. Two years later the band's follow-up Antics was released and featured a lighter sound and bigger guitars than their debut. The album debuted at number 15 on the charts and proved Interpol as a top act in rock. Our Love to Admire was released in 2007 and again changed up the band's sound as they incorporated keyboards for the first time. While the band's last two albums have been very solid efforts, Interpol haven't quite been able to reach the heights of their debut. That album's cohesion is what makes it great, as each song plays a role and adds to the overall feeling. Turn On the Bright Lights isn't an enjoyable album per se, or at least not the type of album you listen to for a party or something. It's the type of album where if someone's a fan of it, then it is probably an album of great importance for them. The tension, emotion, riffs, hooks, and everything else combine to make one of this decade's crowning achievements in rock music.