Interpol’s Turn On The Bright Lights is the only album I have had to ban myself from listening to. Music being the key to a whole heap of memories, this was a record I had invested plenty of teenage angst in and was now locked away on iTunes never to be touched again. So why on earth I would volunteer to review its Tenth Anniversary Edition? In short: curiosity got the better of me. I wanted to know whether time had diminished the debut album of a band who arrived fully formed but who are now more fractured than ever before. Carlos Dengler left Interpol two years ago, taking with him a magnetic talent for plucking infinite sorrow from a bass guitar.
Worse still, the remaining band members are now on hiatus pursuing other solo projects and, much like The Strokes, seem to view their day job as exactly that. Thankfully TOTBL is still a miserable record to experience in full.
Like Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream, its horrors crash over you in a relentlessly mundane manner. There’s little drama in ‘NYC’ and ‘Obstacle 1’ yet their fog of intimacy is oppressive. Amidst a swirl of shrieking guitars and weary baritone, the private perversions of ‘Roland’ and ‘Stella.’ plead for your company so they can suffocate in shared isolation.
‘Obstacle 1’ is almost insurmountable, ‘Obstacle 2’ is inevitable and everything is purposefully vague so you can project your own anxieties onto the black canvas. It is a wonderful record, but as is the eternal fate of all reissues, the tracklisting of TOTBL’s Tenth Anniversary Edition favours completism rather than quality control. At least with the demos on disc two of this re-release, you’ll understand just how much Interpol relied on producer Peter Katis to mould their songs. ‘PDA’ and ‘Leif Erikson’ sound worlds apart from their finished versions, lacking the endless, echoing sadness that will come to define them. On record Paul Banks’ could sing the theme tune to Postman Pat and threaten to be submerged by a wave of uncontrollable distress. 123musiq malayalam old songs free download. In these early recordings, he’s positioned too high in the mix, dwarfing Daniel Kessler and co with an anemic drawl.
No wonder Katis was signed up by The National to craft Alligator and Boxer into indie rock masterpieces. Other than the usual array of B-sides and rarities, your real reason for re-investing in TOTBL is ‘Gavilan (Cubed)’. From the album’s surrounding sessions, this is the only previously unreleased track and a reminder of just how little material Interpol had at their disposal in their early days.
A sprawling self-penned note to misery on a record that’s full of sprawling self-penned notes to misery, it’s dwarfed in stature by both ‘The New’ and ‘Specialist’. If you don’t own the Fukd ID #3 and Precipitate EPs, then this is an easy way to get your hands on ‘Precipitate’ and ‘Song Seven’ without becoming suicidal over the state of your overdraft. All these 17 extra tracks really do is underline just how right Interpol got it the first time round. Some masochists will get a lot of pleasure out of poring over three versions of ‘NYC’ before deciding which one is the most gut-wrenching. They might even think TOTBL’s minor key tragedy is enhanced by a remastering job which is mercifully faithful to the original. Personally, I wish I hadn’t stared into the mechanics of an album which I’d left well alone for over four years.
I’m sure this reissue experience has been therapeutic for everyone involved which is exactly why I preferred the underlying trauma.
A dynamically flat and compressed pressing just like all other iterations of the album. At some point I just have to come to terms with the fact that this is a poorly recorded album. The format can't be blamed here as the vinyl version of this album is actually slightly more dynamic than the CD version but with weak bass, thin guitars, and flat vocals there's not much room for improvement. The only thing I can do to save it is to boost the bass and turn it way up until the sound is one swelling indisernable bass blob. Still better than the CD copy.
Thankfully my pressing was even, clean, and void of any clicks, pops, or skips.
. ' Released: November 11, 2002.
' / ' Released: April 14, 2003 Turn On the Bright Lights is the debut by American band, released on August 20, 2002. The album was recorded in November 2001 at Tarquin Studios in Connecticut, and was co-, and by and Gareth Jones. It was released on August 19, 2002 in the United Kingdom and August 20 in the United States, through. Upon release, the record peaked at number 101 on the. It reached number 158 on the in the United States, as well as spending 73 weeks on the chart, peaking at number five. ', ' and ' werere released as singles from Turn On the Bright Lights, and music videos were shot for all but 'Say Hello to the Angels', the album track 'PDA' also had a music video.
A remastered version of the album was released in 2012 to commemorate its tenth anniversary. It featured additional material including demo recordings of several tracks, the bonus songs previously available on international releases and a DVD of live performances and music videos. Watch ghost in the shell 1995.
Interpol are to embark on a tour in 2017 celebrating the album's 15th anniversary, playing the album front to back. Contents. Promotion and release The release of Turn On the Bright Lights was preceded by the marketing of the band's self-titled EP in June 2002, their first release for Matador. The EP contained three tracks: 'PDA', future single ', and 'Specialist'. All three tracks later appeared on the album, with 'Specialist' included as a bonus track in Australian and Japanese editions. Further promotion continued at the beginning of the following year, when the band played the 2003 alongside, and. Critical reception Professional ratings Aggregate scores Source Rating 81/100 Review scores Source Rating A− 8/10 9.5/10 C+ Turn On the Bright Lights was released to critical acclaim from music critics.
The album holds a score of 81 out of 100 from the aggregate site based on 21 reviews, indicating 'universal acclaim'. Contemporary reviews of the album often noted Interpol's influences and drew comparisons to several other acts.
Michael Chamy of cited 'melodic -like basslines; the divine textures of and; a peppy, -like bounce; and a singer who's a dead ringer for.' 'It's almost as if Ian Curtis never hanged himself,' began 's review, with critic Jonah Weiner adding that Paul Banks' vocals channeled Curtis' 'gloomy moan.'
's Victoria Segal called comparisons 'obvious and unmistakable, airbourne in the ashen atmospherics,' while praising Interpol's take on the 'grey-skinned British past'. Wrote that Interpol had created an 'homage to their particular vision of the '80s that stands proudly alongside the best of its idols.'
Scott Seward, writing in, remarked: 'If I like them because they remind me of eating bad bathtub mescaline in the woods and listening to singles, well, that'll do. You might like them for completely different reasons.' Noel Murray of opined that Interpol's virtue 'lies in the way its music unfurls from pinched openings to wide-open codas', while of wrote that their 'sleek, melancholy sound is a thing of glacial beauty'. Eric Carr of argued that the band had forged their own distinct sound, 'a grander, more theatrical atmosphere with lush production that counters their frustrated bombast', praising Turn On the Bright Lights as 'one of the most strikingly passionate records I've heard this year.' However, The Village Voice 's, naming it 'Dud of the Month' in his Consumer Guide column, felt that Interpol 'exemplify and counsel disengagement, self-seeking, a luxurious cynicism,' downplaying Joy Division comparisons as 'too kind'.
's lukewarm assessment of the album described it as 'predictably claustrophobic listening'. At the end of the year, Turn On the Bright Lights featured on several publications' lists of the best albums of 2002, including those of Pitchfork, who named it the year's best album, NME, who ranked it at number ten, and, who ranked it at number five. The album placed at number 15 on The Village Voice 's year-end critics' poll. Legacy Hailed as a seminal album of the 2000s, Turn On the Bright Lights has been cited as an influence on many indie rock bands, including, and others to the extent that many of these bands have been disparagingly referred to as 'Interpol clones'. Closely associated with -era, the album has been seen as helping define 2000s indie rock, and Interpol have been cited as helping usher in the New York-born scene, along with contemporaries such as, and.
Summing up the album's impact in a review of its 2012 re-issue, Matt LeMay of Pitchfork wrote: 'Suggesting that this album is simply a product of its time and place is no less naive than suggesting that anyone who has ever been in love could easily write, arrange and record an amazing love song. There were a lot of good bands in New York in 2002, but only one band made this record.' In 2017, the band embarked on a worldwide tour to celebrate its 15th anniversary. At the end of the decade, the album has been featured on numerous lists. This is a and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by with entries. Publication Accolade Rank Pitchfork 'Top 100 albums 2000-2004' #3 Pitchfork 'Top 200 albums of the 2000s' #20 'Top 50 Albums 2000-2005' #6 Stylus 'Top 100 Albums of the 2000s' #20 NME '100 Greatest Albums of the Decade' #8 NME '500 Greatest Albums of All Time' #130 '100 Best Albums of the Decade' #59 'Top 200 Albums of the Decade' #3 'Top 100 Albums of the Decade' #7 '100 Best Albums of the Decade' #9 '2000-2009: Albums of the Decade' #13 'Top 20 Albums of the Decade' #10 'Top 100 Albums of the Decade' #35 '21 Best Albums of the 2000s' #12 Track listing All tracks written by Interpol.
Bright Lights Dublin
Title Length 1. 'Untitled' 3:56 2. 'PDA' 4:59 5.
'Hands Away' 3:05 7. 'Obstacle 2' 3:47 8. 'Stella was a diver and she was always down ' 6:28 9. 'Roland' 3:35 10. 'The New' 6:07 11.
'Leif Erikson' 4:00 Total length: 49:02 Tenth Anniversary Edition bonus disc No. Title Length 1. 'Interlude' 1:01 2. 'Specialist' 6:40 3.
Turn On The Bright Lights
'PDA' (First Demo) 4:44 4. 'Roland' (First Demo) 3:44 5.
'Get the Girls/Song 5' (First Demo) 3:47 6. 'Precipitate' (Second Demo) 5:33 7. 'Song Seven' (Second Demo) 4:43 8. 'A Time to Be So Small' (Second Demo) 5:47 9. 'Untitled' (Third Demo) 4:13 10. 'Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down' (Third Demo) 6:40 11.
'NYC' (Third Demo) 4:27 12. 'Leif Erikson' (Third Demo) 4:27 13. 'Gavilan/Cubed' (Third Demo) (alternatively known as 'Mascara') 6:49 14. 'Obstacle 2' (Peel Session) 3:54 15. 'Hands Away' (Peel Session) 3:10 16.
'The New' (Peel Session) 5:59 17. 'NYC' (Peel Session) 4:17 Bonus tracks on Australian edition.
Bright Lights Debbie Reynolds
'Specialist' – 6:39 Bonus tracks on Japanese edition Two different versions exist.