I love music, but personally, I find that the task of listening to a new album can be quite daunting. I am a patient person, and can sit through pretty much anything. But for some reason, sitting and listening to ten to twelve songs I’ve never heard before is a challenge for me. It’s kind of like walking into a room filled with people I don’t know. I’m a bit apprehensive about getting to know anyone, so I just put it off. Or, in other cases, I fall in love with one or two songs and neglect the others, sometimes for months, until I can sum up the energy to listen to the rest of the album. And I admit, there are full albums in my iTunes library that I’ve never even listened to.
But when the new Vampire Weekend album, Modern Vampires of the City came out earlier this week, I put all of my petty fears aside and just gave it a good listen. And then another, and another.
I’ve been a fan of Vampire Weekend since the beginning. I immediately took to the super catchy A-Punk and their first and second albums have been in heavy rotation ever since. Now, oftentimes I really like an album from a band, but then when their next album comes out I sort of become unfaithful and don’t even bother to listen to it. But with VW it’s different. They haven’t disappointed me yet and hopefully never do.
Their latest album is different from their last two, as it is darker and a bit more mature than their lively and heavily African influenced former sound. Yet, it’s still very much them in every way. One aspect that interested me was the lingering theme of death surrounding the entire album, which is beautifully felt in the bleak “Hudson,” and also in the 50s-style “Diane Young” (say it out loud). Lead singer Ezra Koenig still places his trademark vocals on every track, and I am eternally grateful that he ditched a career of being a teacher and having teenage girls develop unrequited crushes on him for a life of music and having teenage girls develop (less creepy) unrequited crushes on him. And as always, Rostam Batmanglij’s creativity touches every corner of the album. And also shout out to bassist Chris Baio and drummer Chris Tomson, because I'd feel bad if I didn't.
One thing that has always made me adore VW is their sense of humor, which is not something you can say about most bands. For their new album, they teamed up with Steve Buscemi (a very distant cousin of Chris Baio, no less) and released a series of hilarious online promo videos involving bowling and easter egg painting that led up to their Amex Unstaged concert. Needless to say, the results were beautiful.
Sidenote, if you like Vampire Weekend, you should give Rostam’s side project, Discovery a try.
