Out of all the pressure that a band can be saddled with upon rising in prominence, the label of being significantly influential and important to the genre of music you exist in is a particularly stressful one. Upon being labeled as playing a large role in a genre’s rise, a band is immediately focused on as an example of how prominent the genre is as opposed to the rest of the music scene and is expected to continue to contribute to the genres growth. It is viewed as washed up if the genre is to fall by the wayside. It’s a pure example of living and dying by the music you play. Sometimes this unfortunate series of events happens to truly talented bands like, say, Orange Juice, and sometimes it happens to Limp Bizkit.
In the time since Interpol released their seminal first album, Turn on the Bright Lights, in 2002 they have lost keyboardist and original member, Carlos Dengler, and have seen their other studio efforts receive mostly positive to downright negative reviews. The band ultimately went on hiatus in 2010. Many other bands that were rising to prominence around the same time period as Interpol, such as The White Stripes and The Vines, have either broken up or have long since been viewed as defunct. Only time will tell if Interpol will reunite and make a comeback or will ultimately be viewed as a moment in time.
The good news is that with Turn On The Bright Lights ten year re-release, the album does hold up, quite well in fact. Lead singer Paul Banks’s voice creates a unique mix of Ian Curtis and Morissey while he and other members Daniel Kessler, Carlos Dengler and Samuel Fogarino craft beautifully constructed songs that recreate some of the quintessential aspects of first wave post-punk bands from the late 70’s to the 80’s. On “PDA” Bank’s sings, “You are the only person who’s completely certain there’s nothing here to be into” over bitter sweet composition. The band is able to recreate the greatest aspects of a genre that at the time had been lying dormant in the wake of grunge and gangsta rap during the 90’s while simultaneously creating their own identity as a band.
The rise of alternative music in the new millennium saw the resurgence of influences that had been present in music for decades. The term revival when applied to a genre of music does not so much mean a rehashing of ideas, as much as it means carrying on where the genre faded away. Interpol’s 2002 album stands as the marking point of both a reemergence and a continuation of growth of a genre that’s exploration has run over the course of its existence deep. Today, Interpol exists as a much different band than the one that released an album a decade ago that has gone on to be considered one of the greatest of the new millennium. Some may argue that the bands best days are far behind them, but no matter what the future holds, they still have their 2002 opus to cement their legacy.