Monday, April 26, 2004
Interpol: The New
I can't pretend
I need to defend
some part of me from you
I know I've spent some time a-lying
-- Interpol, Turn on the Bright Lights, 2002
Hopefully, when an artist gets something just right, it touches you. It reaches out and grabs you and won’t let go until you either laugh, cry, or jump for joy. I love music, books, movies. I love the access into someone elses imagination, to be where they live and to find out how similar or dissimilar it is to you. A group that has been fascinating me of late is Interpol.
Interpol is a New York based that have influences from Echo and the Bunneyman and Joy Division, but who are distinctive enough to own their own merit. AllTheMusic.com describes the band as a new post-punk. Definitely their sound is at times combinations of insular, intense, cathartic, and somber. The New is all of this and something indescribablly more.
A song of love, commitment, or prehaps the lack thereof, trust, and that something that pulls you in multiple directions even as your sure where your heading. The New achingly reminds me of a new friendship being developed with an ex of mine. The relationship didn’t end badly, at least not by today’s Jerry Springer standards, but it did end with my losing trust in the other person.
Sometimes when I’m with her, I can hear the faint echoes of the guitar and refrain both somberly sung and wrenched out by Paul Banks. I keep hearing a whispered “...I need to defend, some part of me from you” and I know that I could do more to be better friend, but I can’t seem to compel myself past the lack of trust to expose more of me to her.
So the song acts as a somber reminder and cathartis to my indescision in our new friendship. I’m a firm believer that sometimes in life you just have to make a decision, take a stand, move forward, or just move. These decisions involve faith, believe, trust, and instinct. Sometimes the only way for a person to regain your trust is for you to give it. No matter how hard they work or how hard they try to prove their worthiness, it’s all dependent on you saying, “Here’s my trust.” It’s not tied to forgiveness, worthiness, it’s just tied to willingness. My willingness, your willingness. Are you ready to hand over your sword, stand on the battlegrounds of love and friendship empty handed, and see what happens? Am I?
Interpol’s The New makes me wonder. It makes me wonder when I’ll be ready to drop my guard, lay down my defenses, and just stand as a friend for her. I want to but, ”...baby, my heart’s been breaking”.
My review could be about the music--its somber, driving, and cathartic, a walk in the pouring rain when your mind and body need purification. Yeah, it’s that good. It starts slow, with almost a foreboding sound, and before you know it, you lay defenseless, against the words that you wanted to say or need to hear. Then, the driving guitars just propel you along, making you move, but also allowing you to understand that sometimes these decision take time.
My review could be about the lyrics--they’re brilliant. Almost perfect. From the initial, “I wish I could live free, I hope it’s not beyond me” to the plaintive, “baby, my heart is breaking”. And I’ve already mention the refrain, “I can’t pretend, I don’t need to defend, some part of me from you”, it’s simple and highly evocative.
Instead, my review is more about how this song makes me feel. It makes me feel relieved. Hopeful. It allows me to acknowledge that I need to take time now, but not forever. I do, I do wish I was ready to step up and make a decision. In some ways trust is such a simple thing, a will you or won’t you give it. But for now, I need to defend myself, so the struggle to give more while exposing less remains. “The New” also remains as a reminder that its fine to take time, so long as you eventually make a decision. Life is quick, letting a friendship fester without trust isn’t something you really want to do for to long.
Rating: 4 out 5
Footnotes
Pop Matters’ 2002 Review of INTERPOL, Turn on the Bright Lights by Devon Powers.
Amazon.com User Reviews.
Other Details
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