Interpol Return With Moody Free Download "Lights"

Last March, Interpol announced they were finally recording songs for the follow-up to their 2007 album Our Love to Admire. Then the band promptly went quiet — only to return 13 months later with a fresh slice of moody rock. Last night on their official website, the New York band posted a new track titled "Lights," which is available for free download in exchange for an e-mail address. (Privacy freaks, fear not. The ensuing e-mail comes with the following message: "We will never abuse your data. Ever.")

True to form, Interpol's new song is stylish and brooding — the kind of track that'd be well-suited for a late-night séance in a graveyard. "Lights" kicks off with some distorted guitar noodling and singer Paul Banks crooning in his unnerved, pinched falsetto over dark, industrial atmospherics, "Don't turn away and leave me to plead in this hole of a place." But the song slowly grows into a sexy, gothabilly-tinged rocker, as upper-range guitar plucks and piano eventually grow louder in the mix.

Interpol haven't said much about what the rest of the LP will sound like, but in an update on their website last March about the progress of their recording sessions, the band reported, "The songs sound vital. It's as though we've hit upon a balance between our urgency and our calm. And true to our better work, this is music that unravels over time. We anticipate that, once it's done, you high-minded folks will welcome the music into your bedrooms… to swagger and breathe."

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

More Song Stories entries »

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