The curtains fall: ingestion, extraction, collection.

Dank, ill, and enigmatic, Interpol’s “Lights” music video is a short study in implied horror. A tangled pain/pleasure principle. A promised Kool-Aid ecstatic transcendence. Soul donations in existential exchange for deeper waters to float face-down in.

“All that I see,
Show me your ways,
Teach me to meet my desires,
With some grace”

The music video for “Lights” was directed by Charlie White, who had previously collaborated with the band by directing the music video for their 2004 single “Evil”, from album Antics. which was a hit lauded by fans for its bizarre imagery of a puppet dealing with a car accident. White contacted the band, stating he wanted to do a more abstract take for the video “Lights” to mimic the band’s signature surreal and vague lyrics (amen).

White’s video for “Lights” depicted a sexualized and morbid interpretation of a pheromone harvesting ritual inside a three-horned rhinoceros beetle. In the video, two women in black latex use needles and a large black monolith, which presumably represents an enzyme, to extract white pheromones from a third woman, who presumably represents a substrate. Banks stated the group was pleased with the video, saying they “wanted a striking film clip above all else for ‘Lights’ – and that it be strange.” [Interpol (album) Wikipedia.org]

“All that I fear,
Don’t turn away,
And leave me to plead in this whole other place,
Cause what if I never break?“

Interpol is one of the bands associated with the New York indie music scene and one of several groups that emerged from the post-punk revival of the 2000s. The band’s sound is generally a mix of staccato bass and rhythmic, harmonized guitar with a snare-heavy mix, drawing comparisons to post-punk bands such as Joy Division, Television, The Chameleons, Echo & The Bunnymen, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The band has no primary songwriter, with each member contributing to the compositions. [Interpol (band) Wikipedia.org]

“How have you been, my day,
Now let’s take them away,
(That’s why I hold you,
Strong as you’ve seen,
Old as you behave,
(That’s why I hold you)
You will always obey
(That’s why I hold you)“

The overall meaning of ‘Lights’ remains dubious. Perhaps, a person of straight demeanor and narrow trajectory attempted to stretch outside their comfort zone, their realm, super-consciously traversing their latent senses until lost.

“All that I can see,
Domestic spree,
A seething routine,
I could never navigate,
Maybe I like to stray.”

~

Interpol’s
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