Song of the Day (The Chain): Interpol – NYC

Day 5. It would have been so easy to go with something by Bright Eyes to link up with yesterdays tune by Phoebe Bridgers, since they have a band together. Instead I decided to go with another link. Cities. I was thinking about songs which are about cities & are named after one. A friend of mine had just posted on Facebook that they were listening to Interpol’s debut album, Turn On The Bright Lights, & I remembered that it included the excellent, melancholic NYC.

So from Kyoto to NYC we go. NYC is one of the more downtempo tunes on Turn On The Bright Lights, a mournful dirge, claustrophobically bleak. The most common comparison made by the music press at the time of release was Joy Division. This isn’t inaccurate, but I definitely see a lot more influences in their, not least their contemporaries & fellow New Yorkers, The Strokes.

I had seven faces 
Thought I knew which one to wear
I’m sick of spending these lonely nights 
Training myself not to care

The subway is a porno 
The pavements they are a mess
I know you’ve supported me for a long time
Somehow I’m not impressed

But New York cares (got to be some more change in my life)
New York cares (got to be some more change in my life)
New York cares (got to be some more change in my life)
New York cares (got to be some more change in my life)

Subway she is a porno 
And the pavements they are a mess
I know you’ve supported me for a long time
Somehow I’m not impressed

It’s up to me now turn on the bright lights
Oh, it’s up to me now turn on the bright lights

New York cares (got to be some more change in my life)
New York cares (got to be some more change in my life)
New York cares (got to be some more change in my life)
New York cares (got to be some more change in my life)

It’s up to me now turn on the bright lights
(Got to be some more change in my life)
Oh, it’s up to me now turn on the bright lights
(Got to be some more change in my life)

Keep up to date with the Song of the Day (The Chain) Spotify playlist.