5: Turn on the Bright Lights by Interpol
I’m sure you saw this one coming.
Nothing changed the trajectory of my musical path quite like this song and this band. Interpol put the final nail in my metal-love coffin, and led me to discover a variety of other bands that I would not have listened to otherwise. Getting sucked into that ‘indie’ world at that age was useful and helped me establish a musical foundation. The details of my discovery of Interpol are quite hazy to me, but I can remember reading the review for TOTBL the day it was posted on Pitchfork. After that, seeing the video just solidified everything for me; it was dark, sexy, and sartorial. TOTBL is the album that defined high school for me, and I love it just as much to this day. The rest of my musical outlook has changed quite a bit, but my opinion of this album has not. Interpol the band however… they’ve changed to the point where I’m not sure what I think of them. They seem too aware of their own fame (as minor as it may be), and that seems to have affected their musical output as well. Our Love to Admire was an abomination, it is unlistenable to me. Here’s hoping they can become grounded again and release something that is even half of what TOTBL was.
