Week of Vampire Weekend

      This week I am going to visit an artist that has yep to disappoint me. Lets see if they can keep it up. First they were hipster legends, then a mainstream success, and now they have almost reached the level of festival headliner. This week I will be reviewing Vampire Weekend- Modern Vampires of the City.

      Vampire Weekend is an American indie rock band from New York City formed in 2006.They consist of guitarist and keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij, drummer and percussionist Chris Tomson, bassist Chris Baio, and lead singer/guitarist Ezra Koenig. Members of the band met while attending Columbia University, beginning with a rap collaboration between Koenig and Tomson, bonding over love of punk rock and African Music. This collaboration toured with The Dirty Projectors. Their debut album was leaked on to the Internet before it was even released, giving them time to do three full tours and a Spin Magazine cover shoot before their debut album was even released. The band's first album Vampire Weekend was released on January 28, 2008. This album achieved huge commercial success with singles "A-Punk", "Oxford Comma", and "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" and was featured on Step Brothers, Guitar Hero 5, Just Dance 2, and many other things. The band's second album Contra was released on January 11, 2010 and also brought huge commercial success with singles "Horchata" and "Cousins". It also scored the bands first #1 billboard record. This brings us to Modern Vampires of the City.
   

      The release of Vampire Weekend's first album or rather before the release of it and brought them some of the biggest success ever. The album was up on the Internet a full year before it was officially released, a tactic that worked very well in their favor. The blog and online music community spread the album all around like wildfire. It was so successful that the band went on three full tours before the album even came out, one of those tours was with The Shins. The were even declared the years best new band by Spin magazine that also featured them on the cover that month. Also happening before their debut album was released. It did cause the band to have some backlash though, as critics had a perceived image of them as privileged upper-class Ivy League graduates stealing their music from foreign musicians. One critic even went so far as to call them, "the whitest band in the world". This backlash eventually passed, for the most part that is.
                                                              A-Punk- Vampire Weekend

     
     Vampire Weekends have been referred to as a group of spoiled ivy league kids that have trouble relating and connecting to their audience's troubles. On this album they may have changed that. Their lyrics are as clever and filled with pop culture references as ever, but now they have more emotional depth. "Ya Hey" even goes so far as to question the existence of god while a chorus of chipmunks sing over the top. "Unbelievers" talks about being involved with the sins of life. The rest of the songs remain as dark and real with talks of running away just to run away, or dying like a Kennedy. This album has the widest arrangement of instrumentation they have ever had, and does what Vampire Weekend always do combining worldly, new wave, and pop genres together into one successful cohesive unit. This album tackles huge issues that most pop artists avoid like life, death, religion, and living in the modern day New York City, where time is moves very differently and how different the lives of the people that live there can.
                                                            Ya Hey-Vampire Weekend

     The opener "Obvious Bicycle" is a slower, simple start to the album using mostly just piano, vocals, and drums to drive the song. "Unbelievers" is a more upbeat catchy song. It's an obvious single and one of the high points of the album. "Step" is a very weird ballad song that manages to quote Modest Mouse, and Berkley communists in a pop song. "Diane Young" is one of the most upbeat and energetic songs here using lots of strange instruments like they are known for, as well lots of voice manipulation. "Don't Lie" is a very synth driven slower song, that sort of just blends into the album.  "Hanna Hunt" is a beautiful ballad with a lot to say. Talking about a mom and her son running away before they can't run away anymore. "Everlasting Arms" is one of the best songs on the album using lots of tightly constructed harmonies and pop hooks. "Finger Back" is a very fast song similar to the lyrics on "California English", its very fun and upbeat. "Worship You" takes off like a rocket with unbelievably fast lyrics, and percussion driven beat that flies by. "Ya Hey" is a long song about the existence of god, that features classical piano lines, and chipmunk chorus parts. "Hudson" is a song about Henry Hudson's death on the Hudson Bay. It's by far the weirdest song on here. The albums closer "Young Lion" is a very slow but short piano ballad with a small chorus rapping the album up nice and sweet like.
                                                             Step-Vampire Weekend

     They really hope to rid themselves of that rich prep kid label with this album and I think that they have. This album may not be the best Vampire Weekend album but it does have the most to say. It sparks huge issues like conversation starters. They never plan to finish these huge topics, just make you think about them. A very strong album all around from a very dependable artist.
Recommended Songs: Unbelievers, Step, Everlasting Arms, and Diane Young.

4.5/5 Stars