Interpol’s Turn On The Bright Lights is the only album Ihave had to ban myself from listening to. Music being the key to awhole heap of memories, this was a record I had invested plenty ofteenage angst in and was now locked away on iTunes never to be touchedagain. So why on earth I would volunteer to review its Tenth Anniversary Edition?

• Interpol Turn On The Bright Lights 10th Anniversary Raritan Valley
• Interpol Turn On The Bright Lights 10th Anniversary Raritan Nj

In short: curiosity got the better of me.I wanted to know whether time had diminished the debut album of a bandwho 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 infull. Like Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream, its horrorscrash over you in a relentlessly mundane manner. There’s little dramain ‘NYC’ and ‘Obstacle 1’ yet their fog of intimacy is oppressive.Amidst a swirl of shrieking guitars and weary baritone, the privateperversions of ‘Roland’ and ‘Stella.’ plead for your company so theycan suffocate in shared isolation. ‘Obstacle 1’ is almostinsurmountable, ‘Obstacle 2’ is inevitable and everything ispurposefully vague so you can project your own anxieties onto theblack 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. 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 reasonfor re-investing in TOTBL is ‘Gavilan (Cubed)’. From thealbum’s surrounding sessions, this is the only previously unreleasedtrack and a reminder of just how little material Interpol had at theirdisposal in their early days. A sprawling self-penned note to miseryon a record that’s full of sprawling self-penned notes to misery, it’sdwarfed in stature by both ‘The New’ and ‘Specialist’. If you don’town the Fukd ID #3 and Precipitate EPs, then this is aneasy way to get your hands on ‘Precipitate’ and ‘Song Seven’ withoutbecoming suicidal over the state of your overdraft.All these 17 extra tracks really do is underline just how rightInterpol got it the first time round. Some masochists will get a lotof pleasure out of poring over three versions of ‘NYC’ beforedeciding which one is the most gut-wrenching.

They might even thinkTOTBL’s minor key tragedy is enhanced by a remastering jobwhich is mercifully faithful to the original. Personally, I wish Ihadn’t stared into the mechanics of an album which I’d left well alonefor over four years. I’m sure this reissue experience has beentherapeutic for everyone involved which is exactly why I preferred theunderlying trauma.

Interpol Turn On The Bright Lights 10th Anniversary Raritan Valley

Quality control issues here. Side A of record one in my box set has audio flaws. It's most noticeable in the beginning of track 1. Also, the first song on my DVD has choppy video (dropped frames) and the sound cuts in and out of both channels at points.

Interpol Turn On The Bright Lights 10th Anniversary Raritan Nj

I should also point out that I have not noticed much of a difference with the new remastering here. Wish I'd held onto my old 180g copy instead of buying this because it sounded way better. Disregarding the pressing flaws, the 180g vinyl had much more dynamic range than this RM.