Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights

Interpol makes music with repetitious guitars and bass accompanied by slightly off-kilter vocals delivering nonsense lyrics. It's better than that sounds, but maybe not as great as some critics would think. Turn On the Bright Lights is a fun album to listen to. It's never boring, and they create some deeply affecting melodies that are really quite enjoyable. There's rarely a dull moment throughout. I just really don't see how it's much better than similarly catchy/non-varied music that is labeled as punk and generally ignored. Interpol is about as good as that general kind of music gets, but I think they get a ton of acclaim because they sound more mysterious, not because they're actually that superior musically.

The first track is my favorite. The piano blends with the guitar and works well with the rest of the sounds. "Obstacle 1" is a good single, since it encapsulates their sound quite well and is one of the better songs. "NYC" is a slower song and fairly enjoyable. "PDA" is another good single that represents the band well. The thing is, most of the songs do a good job here, because they all sound pretty similar. "Obstacle 2" has catchy vocals and nice interaction with the instruments. Towards the end there are a couple tracks over six minutes long that show a bit more range from the band as they experiment a little. "Roland" might be the hardest track, with a good riff in the chorus. All in all, not a whole lot about the album really stands out from the rest but it is a consistent, good album.