February 2003

Interpol: Turn On The Bright Lights

Interpol's "Turn On The Bright Lights" is the best rock album I've heard in a long time. Straight up. Now let me tell you why.

First of all, Interpol rocks. But not in that lame Nu-Metal way. Mixing hip-hop with rock pretty much achieved it's ultimate triumph with Run DMC/Aerosmith's "Walk This Way". Everything else ever since has sucked. Nu-Metal is for all sorts of assholes- from retarded frat boys to kids who hang out at the mall and call themselves punks cuz they got a piercing. It should go without saying that we don't listen to that mall-punk crap around here.

Anyhow, back the band at hand. Interpol's music sounds familiar, yet definitely on the cutting edge. This is because they rock old school. There is definitely a old mopey underground post-punk influence at work here. But not lame Morrisey kind of mope. The vaguely dark sound vocals mix well with the mostly indecipherable lyrics in front of the heavy lo-fi music. It's a heavy sort of sound, but not one that's going to make you feel like some sort of loser goth teenager.

But despite the heavy influences from the past, this is an amazingly new sound. Interpol has taken rocking out to a slightly higher level than the much imitated Modest Mouse. There is a certain level of sophistication at work here than lends an odd sense of maturity for the lo-fi sound.

"Turn On The Bright Lights" isn't hard to listen straight through, either. All of the songs are worth listening to, and they are put together enough to make it a very coherent whole.

In short, this album, which has been called on of the best of 2002, rocks to an incredibly high degree. It's worth spending some time with and getting to know.