Interpol Turn On The Bright Lights CD

The stunning debut album that incorporates so many postpunk influences: Joy Division, Television, Morrissey, . Includes the bonus track "Specialist".

Interpol: Carlos D., Daniel Kessler, Paul Banks, Samuel Fogarino.
Audio Mixers: Gareth Jones ; Peter Katis.
Recording information: Tarquin Studios.
Photographers: Andrew Zaeh; Sean McCabe.
Unknown Contributor Roles: Daniel Kessler; Paul Banks; Sam Fogarino.
One might go into a review like this one wondering how many words will pass before Joy Division is brought up. In this case, the answer is 16. Many are too quick to classify Interpol as mimics and lose out on discovering that little more than an allusion is being made. The music made by both bands explores the vast space between black and white and produces something pained, deftly penetrating, and beautiful. Save for a couple vocal tics, that's where the obvious parallels end. The other fleeting comparisons one can one whip up when talking about Interpol are several -- roughly the same amount that can be conjured when talking about any other guitar/drums/vocals band formed since the '90s. So, sure enough, one could play the similarity game with this record all day and bring up a pile of bands. It could be a detrimental thing to do, especially when this record is so spellbinding and doesn't deserve to be mottled with such bilge. However, this record is a special case; slaying the albatross this band has been unfairly strangled by is urgent and key. Let's: there's another Manchester band at the heart of "Say Hello to the Angels," but that heart is bookended by a beginning and end that approaches the agitated squall of Fugazi; the torchy, elegiac "Leif Erikson" plays out like a missing scene from the Afghan Whigs' Gentlemen; the upper-register refrain near the close of "Obstacle 1" channels Shudder to Think. This record is no fun at all, the tension is rarely resolved, and -- oh no! -- it isn't exactly revolutionary, though some new shades of gray have been discovered. But you shouldn't allow your perception to be fogged by such considerations when someone has just done it for you and, most importantly, when all this brilliance is waiting to overwhelm you. ~ Andy Kellman
To make music marked distinctly of a specific period that's somehow so compelling as to be timeless is no mean feat. Interpol initially sounds as if they must have been roaming about Manchester as the 1970s screamed to a close, yet they emerged across the ocean in New York City some two decades-plus later. Combining the insistent drone of Joy Division with the dreamy melodies of the Chameleons, the fire of Mission of Burma, and an occasional jagged edge a la The Fall, the foursome inconceivably manage to defy anachronism on their debut full-length TURN ON THE BRIGHT LIGHTS. Just how they do it is indefinable, perhaps it's just a trick of the light, or the life that breathes gloomily, radiantly throughout, but it's undeniable.
Vocals which fall somewhere between Ian Curtis's plaintive, edge-of-oblivion wail and the winking, laconic drawl of James's Tim Booth, ripping uncompromisingly through unpredictable, unforgettable lamentations from the reflective ("NYC") to the imploring ("PDA"). When the darkly etched, implosive, mournful lyrics poke out as they do on the unrelenting "Obstacle 1" ("she puts the weights into my little heart and she gets in my room and she tears it apart"), the hook is set for an important debut by a band that portends to be around a while.

Rolling Stone (12/26/02, p.106) - Included in Rolling Stone's "50 Best Albums of 2002"
Rolling Stone (12/26/02, p.104) - Ranked #7 in Rolling Stone's list of 2002's "10 Best Debuts"
Rolling Stone (9/5/02, p.72) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Their melancholy sound is a thing of glacial beauty....immpeccably tailored..."
Spin (1/03, p.72) - Ranked #32 on Spin's list of 2002's "Albums of the Year" - "...Echoes of Bunnymen, a smidgen of Smiths, lots of Joy Division..."
Entertainment Weekly (8/23/02, p.142) - "...One of the most exciting new sounds of the year..." - Rating: A-
Q (9/02, p.107) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...[Their] brooding melodies make for predictably claustrophobic listening....and they have the tunes to match all the mannered gloom."
Uncut (1/03, p.95) - Ranked #26 in Uncut's "100 Best Albums of the Year"
Uncut (9/02, p.111) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...Exhilaration amid the despondency...powerful songs and a light, shoegazey sheen means they frequently soar...A compelling inaugural shot."
Mojo (Publisher) (1/03, p.77) - Ranked #34 in Mojo's "Best Albums of 2002"
Mojo (Publisher) (10/02, p.110) - "...Reverberant and ominous...flashes of steely-grey beauty..."
NME (Magazine) (8/17/02, p.34) - 8 out of 10 - "...Forget the New York state of mind: Interpol have crossed county lines into new, distinctly Mancunian territory..."