Shut up. I know you’re jaded and you think Interpol is lame and OMFG HE’S RIPPING OF IAN CURTIS. So allow me to be the first to say “fuck Ian Curtis.” Turn on the Bright Lights is one of the best albums of the decade, and along with the first album by The Strokes it practically defined what New York music was 6 years ago.

This album made New York music so fucking cool that an endless slew of imitators immediately followed. I’m looking at you, Editors and everyone else that wore long coats and suits and played dreary music between 2003 and 2004. It was imitated because it was so god damn good. I’m sure Interpol were more surprised than anyone at how well it came out. Actually, probably not.

And yes, by 2004 everyone’s voice was droning and they were surrounded in mopey resonance, and everyone had a 98 pound bassist who looked like Dracula’s anemic nephew, but Interpol did it first and they did it best with Turn on the Bright Lights. Every time I hear this album it holds up, and nothing brings me back to winter like the opening chords of Untitled. I put this up there with The Cure’s Disintegration as my favorite albums of the season. So there.

Tags: interpol, october, winter

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Culture, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.