Turn On the Bright Lights is the debut studio album by American post-punk revival band Interpol, released in August 2002. The album was recorded in November 2001 at Tarquin Studios in Connecticut, and was co-produced, mixed and engineered by Peter Katis and Gareth Jones. It was released on August 19, 2002 in the United Kingdom and August 20 in the United States, through independent record label Matador Records. Upon release, the record peaked at number 101 on the UK Albums Chart. It reached number 158 on the Billboard 200 in the United States, as well as spending 73 weeks in the Billboard Independent Albums, peaking at number five.

"PDA," "NYC," "Obstacle 1" and "Say Hello to the Angels" were the singles from Turn On the Bright Lights, and a video was shot for each with the exception of "Say Hello to the Angels."

The album was certified Gold by the RIAA on August 29, 2011 for shipments of 500,000 copies.^[2]

Promotion and release[link]

The release of Turn On the Bright Lights was preceded by the marketing of the band's self-titled Interpol EP in June 2002, their first release for Matador. The EP contained three tracks: radio single "PDA", future single "NYC", and "Specialist". All three tracks later appeared on the album, with "Specialist" included as a bonus track in Australian and Japanese editions. Further promotion continued at the beginning of the following year, when the band played the 2003 NME Awards Tour alongside The Datsuns, The Polyphonic Spree and The Thrills.^[3]

Track listing[link]

All tracks written by Interpol.

1. "Untitled" – 3:56
2. "Obstacle 1" – 4:11
3. "NYC" – 4:20
4. "PDA" – 4:59
5. "Say Hello to the Angels" – 4:28
6. "Hands Away" – 3:05
7. "Obstacle 2" – 3:47
8. "Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down" – 6:28
9. "Roland" – 3:35
10. "The New" – 6:07
11. "Leif Erikson" – 4:00

Bonus tracks on Australian edition[link]

• "Specialist" – 6:39

Bonus tracks on Japanese edition[link]

Two different versions exist. One version has the following bonus tracks:

• "Interlude" – 1:02
• "Specialist" – 6:39

The other version has the following bonus tracks:

• "Hands Away" (Peel session)
• "Obstacle 2" (Peel session)
• "PDA" (video)
• "NYC" (video)
• "Obstacle 1" (video)

Bonus tracks on Mexican edition[link]

• "Interlude" – 1:02
• "Specialist" – 6:39
• "PDA" (video)
• "NYC" (video)
• "Obstacle 1" (video)

Critical reception[link]

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[4]
Drowned in Sound	(9/10)[5]
NME	(8/10)[6]
Pitchfork Media	(9.5/10)[7]
PopMatters	(9/10)[8]
Q	[9]
Robert Christgau	C+[10]
Rolling Stone	[11]

Interpol's debut album gained so much critical success that not only was it hailed as one of best debuts of 2002, but is considered by some to be one of the best records of the decade. Turn On the Bright Lights made several critics' Top 10 lists of 2002.

• Thee-O – #1
• Michael Azerrad – #1
• Chris Baldwin – #10
• Greg Beets – #2
• Eric Broome – #8
• Dana Buoniconti – #5
• Nick Catucci – #6
• Paul Clements – #4
• Dave Clifford – #4
• Ethan Covey – #8
• Corey du Browa – #8
• Cyndi Elliott – #7
• Norm Elrod – #3
• John Elsasser – #7

The rest of the list is located at The Village Voice.

Awards[link]

• #1 – Pitchfork Media: Top 50 Albums of 2002
• #3 – Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of 2000–2004
• #20 – Pitchfork: Top 200 Albums of 2000s
• #5 – Stylus: Top 20 Albums of 2002
• #6 – Stylus: Top 50 Albums 2000–2005
• #13 – Stylus: Top 100 Albums of 2000s
• #10 – NME: Albums of 2002
• #8 – NME: Top Albums of the 00s
• #59 – Rolling Stone: 100 Best Albums of the Decade

Personnel[link]

• Paul Banks – lead vocals, guitar
• Daniel Kessler – lead guitar, backing vocals
• Carlos D – bass, keyboards
• Samuel Fogarino – drums, percussion

Chart performance[link]

Certifications[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Turn on the Bright Lights at Metacritic

Mark Bittman (born c.1950) is an American food journalist and author. He is a columnist for The New York Times.

Education[link]

Bittman is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School Class of 1967 and of Clark University.^[1]

Career[link]

Bittman is a prolific author on the topic of food and cooking. Three of his books, including Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef, have been given the IACP/Julia Child and/or James Beard awards.

Bittman published his book Leafy Greens in 1995, How to Cook Everything in 1998, Fish - The Complete Guide to Buying and Cooking in 1999 and Simple to Spectacular in 2000.

In 2005 he published the book, The Best Recipes in the World and Bittman Takes On America's Chefs and hosted the Public Television series Bittman Takes on America's Chefs which won the James Beard Award for best cooking series.^[2]

In 2007 he published How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and created the film "What's wrong with what we eat?".

Bittman appeared with Gwyneth Paltrow and Mario Batali, in a PBS series called Spain... on the road Again in 2008.

In 2009 Bittman published the book Food Matters on food related topics such as environmental challenges, lifestyle diseases, overproduction and over consumption of meat and simple carbohydrates, and began the TV series Kitchen Express.

In 2010, Bittman created The Food Matters Cookbook; an expansion of the principles and recipes in his prior book.

Bittman has written books related to his New York Times column: The Minimalist Cooks at Home, The Minimalist Cooks Dinner and The Minimalist Entertains^[2] His final Minimalist column was published on January 26, 2011. Bittman continued writing as a columnist for the New York Times Magazine and had a column in the paper's Opinion section; he also blogged.^[3]:

Bittman wrote a pair of articles for The New York Times Week in Review, called “Rethinking the Meat Guzzler” and “The Future of Fish”.

Bittman has appeared on NBC's The Today Show and NPR's All Things Considered.^[2] and appeared as a guest judge on the Food Network competition series Chopped.^{[citation needed]} He also hosts a weekly cooking video on the New York Times website.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Bittman lives in New York City with his wife, Kelly Doe, a New York Times graphic designer and art director.^{[citation needed]} He has two adult daughters from a prior marriage. Bittman runs marathons and is a licensed pilot.^[2]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Video: Voting with your mouth with Mark Bittman and Ezra Klein
• Video: Mark Bittman on what's wrong with what we eat at EG Conference in 2007