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Dec 10, 2012 Web Exclusive By Jim Scott

No matter how one feels about Interpol’s output in the 10 years since the release of their debut Turn on the Bright Lights, it’s still an astonishing record. Not many bands have come into the world with such clarity of vision that the music, design, attire, and persona all fit tightly into one package. As befits such a precise work, Matador presents the Turn on the Bright Lights anniversary in a loving set that includes the remastered album, an album of B-sides, and a DVD that includes music videos and the band’s Los Angeles show at the Troubadour in 2002.

Turn on the Bright Lights holds up surprisingly well, with those fine and shimmering initial notes of “Untitled” setting the stage for what is to come. It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that the first word the band put forth into the world was “surprise.” Though the Joy Division comparisons were (and remain) entirely accurate, no one else sounded as clean and crisp in 2002. Ten years later, songs like “NYC” and “Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down” retain their thrill.

It’s not hard to tell why the B-sides didn’t make the original cut. The videos, however, add to the mystique of Turn on the Bright Lights: how did everything fit so perfectly so quickly? It’s a question the band itself seems to have struggled to answer for the past decade.

(www.interpolnyc.com)

Author rating: 9/10