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A soft red light breaks the darkness of a stage shrouded in thick, unhealthy smoke, upon which four clean-looking young men, dressed with elegant '30s flair, perform the miracle of rock: this was the image that Interpol presented of themselves at the beginning of the decade. Born from the dark and hidden belly of New York, this band managed to capture and embody its most poetically dark and lesser-known aspects.
"Turn on the Bright Lights," debut album released in 2002, shows us sordid yet fascinating glimpses, the source of the band's dark and rarefied tones, playing on the thread of ambiguity, never fully revealing its black heart, a hidden gem. The album features light and dark tones in seamless succession, with tracks that draw from the ominous energy of a pulsating bass, the true master of rhythm, melodious guitars painting opaque and haunting landscapes, an incessant and omniscient drum, and the lyrics of the learned singer Paul Banks, enigmatic and hermetic introspections of a visionary soul.
The record is a succession of fascinating metropolitan pearls, with a breathtaking first part where at least "Obstacle 1" must be mentioned, a track that well represents the band's taste for chiaroscuro tones, and "NYC," a piece with a broad orchestral scope that is a passionate homage to the underground New York. In the second part of the album, the sky suddenly darkens, and masterpieces like the adrenaline-filled and ambiguous "Roland" appear, and especially "The New," the album's most controversial track, which opens like a delicate autumn morning only to abruptly fade into a violent and schizoid storm of psychedelia.
"Turn on the Bright Lights" looks like the apocalypse and is perhaps the last testimony of how even in these dark times, true masterpieces can be born.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
02 Obstacle 1 (04:11)
I wish I could eat the salt
Off of your lost faded lips
We can cap the old times
Make playing only logical harm
We can cap the old lines
Make playing that nothing else will change
But she can read, she can read, she can read
She can read she's bad
She can read, she can read
She can read she's bad
Oh, she's bad
But it's different now that I'm poor and aging
I'll never see this face again
You go stabbing yourself in the neck
And we could find new ways of living
Make playing only logical harm
And we could top the old times
Clay-making that nothing else will change
But she can read, she can read, she can read
She can read she's bad
She can read, she can read
She can read she's bad
Oh, she's bad
It's different now that I'm poor and aging
I'll never see this place again
You go stabbing yourself in the neck
But it's different now that I'm poor and aging
I'll never see this place again
And you'll go stabbing yourself in the neck
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 it, she puts the weights into 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
She packs it away...
It's in the way that she walks
Her heaven is never enough
She puts the weights in my heart
She puts it, she puts the weights into my little heart
03 NYC (04:19)
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
And the pavements they are a mess
I know you've supported me for a long time
Somehow I'm not impressed
New York Cares
(Got to be some more change in my life)
New York Cares
(Got to be some more change in my life)
Subway she is a porno
And the pavements they are a mess
I know you've supported me for a long time
Somehow I'm not impressed
It's up to me now, turn on the bright lights
It's up to me now, turn on the bright lights
New York Cares
(Got to be some more change in my life)
New York Cares
(Got to be some more change in my life)
It's up to me now, turn on the bright lights
(Got to be some more change in my life)
Oh, it's up to me now, turn on the bright lights
(Got to be some more change in my life)
04 PDA (04:59)
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 sinner
The last winner
I'm raping all around me
Until the last drop is behind you
But you're so cute
When you're frustrated, dear
Yeah, you're so cute
When you're sedated, dear
I'm resting
Sleep tight, grim right
We have two hundred couches where you can
Sleep tight, grim right
We have two hundred couches where you can
Sleep tight, grim right
We have two hundred couches where you can
Sleep tonight, sleep tonight
Sleep tonight, sleep tonight
You are the only person
Who's completely certain
There's nothing here to be into
That is all that you can do
You are a past sinner
The last winner
And everything we've come to
Makes you you, you
But you cannot safely say
While I will be away
You will not consider, sadly
How you helped me to stray
You will not reach me, I am
Resenting a position that is past resentment
And now I can't consider
And now there is this distance so
Sleep tight, grim right
We have two hundred couches where you can
Sleep tight, grim right
We have two hundred couches where you can
Sleep tight, grim right
We have two hundred couches where you can
Sleep tonight, sleep tonight
Sleep tonight, sleep tonight
Something to say
Something to do
Nothing to say
When there's nothing to do
05 Say Hello to the Angels (04:28)
I want your silent parts
The parts the birds love
I know there's such a place
I had my back turned
You didn't realize
I'm lonely
You lack the things
To which I relate
But I see no harm
Come wait, come wait, come wait
It's over
One, two, three, do me
When I'm feeling lazy
It's probably because
I'm saving all my energy
To pick up when you
Move into my airspace
Move into my airspace
And something's coming over me
I see you in the doorway
I can't control the part of me
That swells up when you
Move into my airspace
You move into my airspace
But each night, I bury my love around you
You're linked to my innocence
This is a concept
This is a bracelet
This isn't no intervention
This isn't you yet
What you thought was such a conquest
Your hair is so pretty and red
Baby, baby you're really the best
Can I get there this way?
I think so
We should take a trip now to see new places
I'm sick of this town
I see my face has changed
Say hello, say hello, to the angels
08 Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down (06:27)
When she walks down the street,
She knows there's people watching.
The building fronts are just fronts
To hide the people watching her
But she once fell through the street
Down a manhole in that bad way
The underground drip
Was just like her scuba days
Days
Daze
Days
Daze
She was all right because the sea was so airtight, she broke away
She was all right because the sea was so airtight, she broke away
She is all right but she can't come out tonight, she broke away
She was all right, yeah the sea was so tight, air tight
She broke away, broke away
At the bottom of the ocean she dwells
At the bottom of the ocean she dwells
Her caresses caressed by fingers
And fat blue serpent swells
Stella, Stella, oh Stella
Stella I love you, Stella I love you, Stella I love you
She was all right because the sea was so airtight, she broke away
She was all right because the sea was so airtight, she broke away
She is all right but she can't come out tonight, she broke away
She was all right, yeah the sea was so tight, air tight
She broke away, broke away
Well, she was my catatonic sex toy, love-joy diver
Well she was my catatonic sex toy love drug diver
She went down down down there into the sea,
Yeah she went down down down there, down there for me, right on
So good, oh yeah, right on
(There's something that's invisible,
There's some things you can't hide,
Try detect you when I'm sleeping,
In a wave you say goodbye...)
09 Roland (03:35)
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.
My best friend's from Poland and,um,he has a beard.
But they caught him with his case in that public place
That is what we had feared
He severed segments secretly you like that
He always took the time to speak with me
I liked him for that
He severed segments so secretly you liked that
He always took the time,he always took the time
My friend's a butcher,he has sixteen knives
He carries them all over the town,at least he tries,
Oh look it stopped snowing.
My best friend's from Poland and,um,he has a beard
But they caught him with his case in that public place
That is what we had feared
He severed segments secretly you like that
He always took the time to speak with me,
I liked him for that
He severed segments so secretly you like that.
He was growing on me.
He was growing on me.
10 The New (06:07)
I wish I could live free
Hope it's not beyond me
Settling down 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
And baby, my hearts been breaking.
I gave a lot to you
I take a lot from you too
You slave a lot for me
Guess you could say I gave you my edge
But I can't pretend I don't need to defend some part of me from you
I know I've spent some time lying
(How am I doing?)
You're looking all right tonight
I think we should go
11 Leif Erikson (04:00)
She says it helps with the lights out
Her rabid glow is like braille to the night.
She swears I'm a slave to the details
But if your life is such a big joke, why should I care?
The clock is set for nine but you know you're gonna make it eight.
So that you two can take some time, teach each other to reciprocate.
She feels that my sentimental side should be held with kid gloves
But she doesn't know that I left my urge in the icebox
She swears I'm just prey to the female,
Well then hook me up and throw me, baby cakes, cuz I like to get hooked.
The clock is set for nine but you know you're gonna make it eight.
All the people that you've loved they're all bound to leave some keepsakes.
I've been swinging all the time, think it's time to learn your way.
I picture you and me together in the jungle it will be ok.
I'll bring you when my lifeboat sails through the night
That is supposing you don't sleep tonight
It's like learning a new language
Helps me catch up on my mime
If you don't bring up those lonely parts
This could be a good time
It's like learning a new language
You come here to me.
We'll collect those lonely parts and set them down
You come here to me...
She says brief things, her love's a pony
My love's subliminal
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Other reviews
By condor
The reference to Joy Division is inevitable, starting with the voice and that dark sense that captivates all the songs.
Make sure to have this album, and you’ll never part from it. It’s in a fight with Notwist for the best album of the year.
By AR (Anonima Recensori)
"I wish I could eat"...
Given the times, I consider it the best album of 2002.
By Isenicon
This is one of those albums that one would never get tired of listening to: it’s never repetitive, never banal.
'Hands Away' is, in my opinion, the true masterpiece of Interpol, transporting you to another dimension in a dreamy trance.
