Review:

on 2011-09-24 CharlesMartel Said:

So, this is what started the post punk revival in the USA is it? For that reason alone it deserves a listen. Well, it gets off to a good start with "Untitled" but doesn't really lift off from there. By the time you get to "Stella was a Diver and She's Always Down", the album has failed to live up to the promise the opening tracks offered the listener. The lyrics are not offering any new perspective and at times lurch towards a sentimentalism which would have appalled the first generation of post punks.

Interpol seem to be heading for indie-megastardom. I have already heard some people on various fora describe them as the band of the millennium  and we have still got 993 years to go before the nominations end. Is it all justified? In the end, I think not. Like Editors, who seem to be a British version of the same style, the Joy Division influence appears heavy on first hearing. That is largely because of the similarities between the vocalists of both outfits. However, Interpol cannot match the depressive motivation of Ian Curtis and the miserableness which is such a crucial feature in post punk outfits from The Sound to The Smiths is completely absent, never mind the political and social commentary of the Chameleons. In truth, Interpol offer a homogenised post punk without the elements which made post punk so exciting and different.

I am therefore, somewhat baffled by the plaudits this album gains among indie music fans pretty much everywhere. I fail to understand why a post-punk revival album would gain more critical acclaim than one of the post-punk greats  "Script of the Bridge". With this album, Interpol have not done anything new, they have just re-trodden old ground. I suspect that one of the reasons lies in the attention span of the hipsters. Anything which came out before they were born is automatically dismissed. As a consequence, I doubt many of them had even heard of the Chameleons or the Sound before they bought this and started lauding it to high heaven. And once the path is trodden, it is hard to walk back and take a different route.

Having said that, "Turn on the Bright Lights" is not bad, it's just uninspired by comparison. For someone who has never heard anything by any of the aforementioned bands, I can understand the appeal. This is what everyone who dabbles with indie goes looking for - young men with attitude playing guitars and standing around looking cool. As long as Interpol remain sufficiently obscure they will do well. Get popular and Interpol's indie credibility will disappear faster than Madonna's singing when the lip-synch machine breaks down. Street credibility can only be maintained as long as contact with the street is unless the music is rooted in the feelings, emotions, aspirations and life experiences of the street. Interpol do not have that link and I have little doubt that their successor albums will prove to be a disappointment and they will slowly slide from view.

Ultimately, why revive post-punk anyway is my question? There is perfectly good post punk out there from the first time round. I would suggest to anyone that they listen to that first before going out and getting this. After all, it is much more alive and apposite than its modern successor. Being cool isn't the be all and the end all of life. Being cool because other people have told you what cool is, definitely is not. While "Turn on the Bright Lights" may be an okay debut album, it is not as good as some people make it out to be, and it is definitely not anything new or original. That is what makes it, in my view, a mediocre album with some good highlights.
Rating: 6/10