turn on the bright lights

Interpol is a New York band that’s been putting out consistent albums since 2002. Their brand of dark post-punk has been compared to Joy Division and the Cure; it is tight, sharp and anything but free-wheeling. Drummer Sam Fogarino plays complex beats with computerized robotic exactitude while Paul Banks sings in a cold monotone. Though the vocal can be off-putting and the lyrics uninspired, there still exists a transcendent beauty in the music itself. The shimmering guitars, precisely layered and wasting no opportunity to add a counter melody, the deep-in-the-cut bass at times providing more atmosphere than rhythm, and the progressive drumming meld seamlessly to cultivate a feeling of detail that is almost angular in its sound. Songs like “Obstacle 1” with its stabs of reverb, the hook-laden “Slow Hands,” and “Say Hello to the Angels” with its lonely bounce all pulse with a living quality. It’s heaven and hell all rolled into one—a sublime assault on the senses.LISTEN TO PDA, OBSTACLE 2, NOT EVEN JAIL, REST MY CHEMISTRY