Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City

"I Think Ur A Contra" IIRC

Ha ha. Lex is such a contra.

i think he's more of a samantha

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22443178

9.3 on Pitchfork. Blimey.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17963-vampire-weekend-modern-vampires-of-the-city/

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.

I daresay the third XX album will be similar in that regard.

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.

Now I.gotta read Koenig's blog.

You only read it for the articles, right?

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

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.

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.'

generally idgaf about p4k scores but i'm really happy this album is getting the notice it deserves

xp so what's that? 1: carefree fun on campus, 2: searching your path in the city, 3:?

Realising that some plants move.

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.

lol why is the entirety of the first paragraph of the Pitchfork review about Ezra Koenig's defunct blog

(and the Billy Joel post is not particularly good)

also what the hell does "lived-in sonics" mean

But "Step" avoids back-patting nostalgia and debunks bogus generational hierarchies while using the past to inspire the present.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/11/08/nyregion/08-TonySchwarts-Cityroom/08-TonySchwarts-Cityroom-blog480.jpg

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

really? "Step," "Unbelievers," and "Finger Back" were instant earworms.

i'd say "step" yes "unbelievers" sorta but i'm not exactly knocking the songs qua songs

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"

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."

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/856/1336/1600/ezblog.jpg

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

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, May 13, 2013 10:17 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

this is pretty shitty

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

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.

well, it's a second record

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, May 13, 2013 10:17 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

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.

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.

lol at the idea that vampire weekend have ever been underrated by critics

That's not what I said. I mean the first two have been retrospectively downplayed in order to praise the new one.

I do think DJP's paraphrase of Dombal's point is really unfair though.

the gold fact
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/1012

Internet Vibes redux

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/mens-fashion/vampire-weekend-ezra-koenig-style-0513

Mike Powell's Spin review:

http://www.spin.com/reviews/vampire-weekend-modern-vampires-of-the-city-xl/

And people will probably continue to hate them with an elemental passion because they are friendly, urbane young men who make great use of harpsichords

yes this is the only possible reason anyone could hate them *slow hand clap*

pity those friendly, urbane young men, so widely hated just for who they happen to be ;_; ;_;

At least it's not ukeleles.

Lex, out of interest, why do you hate them? I've only ever seen you mention Ezra's voice, which is fair enough, but is that it?

lex sometimes forgets whether he's in his twitter echo chamber or the ILM echo chamber

TBH if I didn't like Vampire Weekend's music I would probably get immense enjoyment out of vocally hating them, they've just got one of those aesthetics.

love mike powell but this review is a small eternity with a lot of smh moments

What's hatable about their aesthetics?

the VW songs i've heard (ie selected singles, dunno which ones were from which albums though) have pretty much all been really polite and fussy but also really insipid and dull - like you know how jon brion's productions can be eye-rollingly fastidious but at least he also has a knack for the rococo? VW remind me of that but in, like, beige. it seems boringly nostalgic in a way i can't put my finger on/haven't thought much about, like it should be the soundtrack in some twee artisanal café. oh and their lyrics are just excruciating, non-stop cringe whenever i've paid attention to them