Thank you for your insights.
― Deafening silence (DL), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 11:55 (eleven years ago) link
Good Ezra line in the Pitchfork interview: "The perfect tone is halfway between deeply serious and totally fucking around. If you don’t give Vampire Weekend credit for any type of self-awareness or humor, you’re always going to have this crazy impression of us.”
http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/9125-vampire-weekend/
― Deafening silence (DL), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 12:11 (eleven years ago) link
lex get ouuuuut we're not trolling dawn richard threads
― bish (bosch), don't kill my vibe (rennavate), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 13:45 (eleven years ago) link
xpost I don't mind that New Yorker piece. Tons of music I feel I should have listened to that I just haven't. Nice to see someone admitting it for a change. If you work in an office where playing music isn't possible, and have a family rather than living in a garret, then keeping up with things is all but fucking impossible simply because the opportunities to listen to music properly are so rare. Now I do much more writing than editing, I listen to less and less, because I'm generally having to listen fairly closely to what I'm actually writing about, rather than casting around to see what's good and what's not.
― If you tolerate Bis, then Kenickie will be next (ithappens), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 13:52 (eleven years ago) link
You're right about how hard it is to keep up, but the manner in which Greenman penned that kinda bugs me.
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 8 May 2013 15:26 (eleven years ago) link
But it only takes 70 minutes to catch up on their catalogue
― Gukbe, Wednesday, 8 May 2013 17:15 (eleven years ago) link
Why would he lie about how much time he had? Why would he lie about something dumb like that?
― Treeship, Wednesday, 8 May 2013 17:23 (eleven years ago) link
Lol
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 18:07 (eleven years ago) link
lol
― balls, Thursday, 9 May 2013 02:34 (eleven years ago) link
Greenman piece is reasonable to me, and I can totally relate to it.
― Raymond Cummings, Thursday, 9 May 2013 04:05 (eleven years ago) link
Ditto. Some things I decide not to hear / investigate. Always been the case.
― they all are afflicted with a sickness of existence (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 9 May 2013 05:40 (eleven years ago) link
What is it about Koenig's vocals that makes it seem like he sees and understands all yr good parts and bad parts and how they fit together
ftr this might be the most wrong thing i have EVER seen written about this band. TIM....
― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Tuesday, May 7, 2013 5:06 PM Bookmark
I kind of want Ezra Koenig to write a song about lex now.
― The Reverend, Thursday, 9 May 2013 07:34 (eleven years ago) link
"I Think Ur A Contra" IIRC
― Tim F, Thursday, 9 May 2013 09:04 (eleven years ago) link
Ha ha. Lex is such a contra.
― Deafening silence (DL), Thursday, 9 May 2013 09:45 (eleven years ago) link
i think he's more of a samantha
― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 9 May 2013 13:16 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22443178
― Ward Fowler, Sunday, 12 May 2013 13:41 (eleven years ago) link
9.3 on Pitchfork. Blimey.
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17963-vampire-weekend-modern-vampires-of-the-city/
― groovypanda, Monday, 13 May 2013 09:49 (eleven years ago) link
One thing I miss is the sharpness of Contra, the way each song was its own soundworld with each and every detail etched perfectly. In some ways that album felt observationally more acute because it was more acute sonically.
Modern Vampires is messier, more diffuse, that overexposed (in the photograph sense, not the popular culture sense) drum sound creating a constancy in vibe and feel that perhaps is laudable in its own right but also makes the songs less singular - like, I love both "Don't Lie" and "Everlasting Arms", but it's not like you need both of them. It feels by comparison like a self-indulgent sprawl even though most of the songs are shorter and less expansive (though not less surprising or idiosyncratic).
And then on the other hand I do think the band is getting better (or more focused on?) liberating those emotional cut-throughs, the kind of capture-yr-life-in-a-snowglobe effect of "Giving Up The Gun" seems to crop up a lot here, though obv most intensely on "Ya Hey" (which I adore its irritations notwithstanding).
It would be very hard for me at this point to say where/how I rate the album vis a vis their prior work.
― Tim F, Monday, 13 May 2013 11:00 (eleven years ago) link
I daresay the third XX album will be similar in that regard.
― Mark G, Monday, 13 May 2013 11:03 (eleven years ago) link
Why do you say that? It doesn't feel like the band's trajectories based on their respective first two albums are even remotely similar.
― Tim F, Monday, 13 May 2013 11:04 (eleven years ago) link
Now I.gotta read Koenig's blog.
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 May 2013 11:18 (eleven years ago) link
You only read it for the articles, right?
― Tim F, Monday, 13 May 2013 11:19 (eleven years ago) link
Interested by that comment re: the lack of singularity in the songs. Maybe there's a more pervasive sense of darkness and melancholy but stylistically, this album's got pitch-shifting 50s rock'n'roll and Walkmen-style emotional ballads and then weird, creepy curveballs like "Hudson" - it's certainly not void of variation
― monotony, Monday, 13 May 2013 11:28 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah I didn't mean it's not varied, more that the songs don't feel so self-contained. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Often it's only when a new album comes out that it allows me to understand more specifically what it is that made the previous album special to me.
― Tim F, Monday, 13 May 2013 12:50 (eleven years ago) link
I feel all three albums complete each other very well, DL is otm with how it 'traces the emotional arc between the ages of 20 and 27 to perfection.'
― Van Horn Street, Monday, 13 May 2013 12:59 (eleven years ago) link
generally idgaf about p4k scores but i'm really happy this album is getting the notice it deserves
― Mordy , Monday, 13 May 2013 13:47 (eleven years ago) link
xp so what's that? 1: carefree fun on campus, 2: searching your path in the city, 3:?
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Monday, 13 May 2013 13:48 (eleven years ago) link
Realising that some plants move.
― Van Horn Street, Monday, 13 May 2013 13:53 (eleven years ago) link
The rendition of "Diane Young" on Saturday Night Live did not win me over-- the vocals felt too gimmicky. The 2nd song they did was more interesting to me.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 13 May 2013 13:54 (eleven years ago) link
lol why is the entirety of the first paragraph of the Pitchfork review about Ezra Koenig's defunct blog
― far too much asshole flesh (DJP), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:03 (eleven years ago) link
(and the Billy Joel post is not particularly good)
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:03 (eleven years ago) link
also what the hell does "lived-in sonics" mean
― far too much asshole flesh (DJP), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:08 (eleven years ago) link
But "Step" avoids back-patting nostalgia and debunks bogus generational hierarchies while using the past to inspire the present.
― we're up all night to get (s1ocki), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:11 (eleven years ago) link
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/11/08/nyregion/08-TonySchwarts-Cityroom/08-TonySchwarts-Cityroom-blog480.jpg
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:11 (eleven years ago) link
tim otm, when i first heard the record i was sort of like "there's nothing as uniquely pulling as 'taxi cab' or 'run' on this record," by which i mean the pull is stretched across this new record, instead of located specifically in each song. a tightly drawn sprawl
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:14 (eleven years ago) link
really? "Step," "Unbelievers," and "Finger Back" were instant earworms.
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:15 (eleven years ago) link
i'd say "step" yes "unbelievers" sorta but i'm not exactly knocking the songs qua songs
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:16 (eleven years ago) link
I haven't heard the whole album yet and barely remember the songs I listened to upthread but the entire Pitchfork review comes across to me like dude's attitude while writing was "thank god they stopped fucking around with polyrhythms and did some good, comfortable white music" and, when he read back his first draft, he panicked and went "how many adjectives can I throw in here so that people won't notice how fucked up my thesis statement is"
― far too much asshole flesh (DJP), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:17 (eleven years ago) link
reposting Koenig's blog address worthwhile for unearting goodies like this:
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/856/1336/1600/ez22.jpg
he's playing Zep's "The Ocean."
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:18 (eleven years ago) link
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/856/1336/1600/ezblog.jpg
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:19 (eleven years ago) link
also their earworminess is not integral to their environmental qualities; a lot of these songs seem like extremely developed sketches that hint, subtley and successfully i think, at an implied larger drawing
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:19 (eleven years ago) link
― far too much asshole flesh (DJP), Monday, May 13, 2013 10:17 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark
this is pretty shitty
― J0rdan S., Monday, 13 May 2013 14:20 (eleven years ago) link
It largely trades in the Africa-inspired giddiness of their first two records for a sound that's distinctly innate and closer to the ear.
hm
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:21 (eleven years ago) link
Really wish people would stop setting up false oppositions between this record and the two that preceded it. Contra is pretty much halfway between this one and the first.
― Matt DC, Monday, 13 May 2013 14:25 (eleven years ago) link
well, it's a second record
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:27 (eleven years ago) link
They hardly just play 'white' music. They're using reggae samples and screw-vocals and rap-choruses. They're still omnivores, it's just not so focused on rhythms from Africa and the Caribean anymore.
― Frederik B, Monday, 13 May 2013 14:29 (eleven years ago) link
Is any critic capable of praising this album without misreading and underrating the first two?
I think the defunct blog is still relevant though in terms of Ezra's interest in pursuing cultural connections. The writer picks up on one example - the new album was heavily influenced by reggae, in terms of subject matter more than sonics, hence the double meaning of the biblical references. And his observation about the font harking back to the vampire movie years ago is smart.
― Deafening silence (DL), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:32 (eleven years ago) link
lol at the idea that vampire weekend have ever been underrated by critics
― J0rdan S., Monday, 13 May 2013 14:34 (eleven years ago) link
That's not what I said. I mean the first two have been retrospectively downplayed in order to praise the new one.
― Deafening silence (DL), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:36 (eleven years ago) link
I do think DJP's paraphrase of Dombal's point is really unfair though.
― Deafening silence (DL), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:43 (eleven years ago) link