Turn On the Bright Lights

The album title comes from a recurring lyric in "NYC". Banks, Kessler, Dengler and Fogarino recorded it with Peter Katis in his Victorian house at Tarquin, with Gareth Jones assisting on the mix; Katis told Paste that the early Jones mixes were partly redone but he did not have time to remix "NYC", "Leif Erikson" and "Stella", so they were left as they were. Dengler says the songs were written before the attacks of September 11 though they deeply affected the members. The singles were "PDA" (August 22, 2002), "Obstacle 1" (November 11, 2002) and the double A-side "Say Hello to the Angels" / "NYC" (April 14, 2003).

It reached number five on the US indie chart, staying 73 weeks. The 2012 reissue was remastered and added a 79:55 bonus disc.