Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City

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, May 13, 2013 2:19 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This very much OTM.

I can't get with the idea that this is "back to the American Heartland" in sound, at least not unless I missed something and organs and harpsichords now signify that.

The precise point of distinction is that whereas Contra (and Vampire Weekend) were clear and brightly etched and propulsive this is fuzzy and staggering and kind of decrepit at times, the opening sprint versus the final push over the finish line. The strict geographical flavour seems like a second order issue in this regard, but if anything it sounds European, like it's soundtracking a Henry James character travelling round the continent.

And yeah "beige" is wrong - "Ya Hey" is probably the song that Lex will hate more than any other song ever written if he actually hears it, but it's not because it's boring or plays it safe.

idk why people go on about the characters in VW songs Girls as though they're particularly well drawn rather than a bunch of cultural reference points clumsily thrown at the song screen in the hope a couple will stick

I don't actually believe the above but it feels like a matching complaint.

well at least vampire weekend guy is not - to my limited knowledge - as racist as lena dunham, eh

"as racist"

I've been listening to this many times since yesterday and I'm not particularly grabbed so far... except by "step" (and "ya hey" which I love).
but it seems like an album that needs time to open up so we'll see...
I kinda miss the african/caribbean vibes.

xp Their expressed aim was to make a record that sounded "American but not Americana", ie reflecting the mix of immigrant identities that you find in New York, which makes sense for a band which includes recent descendants of Iranians, Italians and Eastern European Jews. Knowing that, I can hear it in the record but "heartland" is way off the mark.

Yeah, I don't hear anything pointing toward "heartland".
it's no "rattle & hum" (and thank Yahve for that !).

xp okay that makes sense - and chimes in with the Manhattan-style clip for 'Step'.

I like the utopian vibe of the anecdote in Fingerback - that in NYC an orthodox Jewish girl can fall for the arab guy at the falafel shop. Ezra says it's a true story, as is hearing someone segue between Israelites and 19th Nervous Breakdown.

19th nervous israelite

I have to say I don't get the "Israelites/19th nervous breakdown" line : do you have an explanation ?

It matters less than Koenig's charming accent.

He said he heard it in a cafe or bar and liked the transition because of how it sounded but also because of the resonance of the titles. They sound quite ominous put together like that.

Yeah there are loads of little melodic and harmonic touches in this that you just don't hear in rock music, especially indie, even when it's ostensibly ambitious and wild and out there. The faux-baroque keyboard lines, the harmonies on 'Hudson', etc.

The organ sound and tumbling percussion on "Everlasting Arms" = *swoon*

immediately getting junior reid stuck in in your head is an insurmountable hurdle to listening to this record properly imo

"Ya Hey" is probably the song that Lex will hate more than any other song ever written if he actually hears it

scrambled to make it stop when the mewing noises came in. what the FUCK

That's my boy

He said he heard it in a cafe or bar and liked the transition because of how it sounded but also because of the resonance of the titles. They sound quite ominous put together like that.

oh ok, I see. thanks !

what is the magic formula for getting people who don't you to rationalize and apologize for you? maybe they should do a song about that

they never me.

true

I'm with lex on those cat noises!

"Hannah Hunt" all of a sudden reminds me of hushed YHF era Wilco

i've been thinking that "unbelievers" kind of reminds me of wilco too

xp Their expressed aim was to make a record that sounded "American but not Americana", ie reflecting the mix of immigrant identities that you find in New York, which makes sense for a band which includes recent descendants of Iranians, Italians and Eastern European Jews. Knowing that, I can hear it in the record but "heartland" is way off the mark.

― Deafening silence (DL

Junior Reid is just as reflective of the immigrants in NY as the ones you name, although yes they largely leave Caribbean and south of the equator influences off on this one. Plus, the Iranian descendent who grew up in a rich Virginia suburb of D.C. has noted that he's been listening to John Lennon's Plastic Ono band (which if you want to call American because John Lennon was spending time in NYC at that time I guess you can).

Well I named them because they're the band members and Junior Reid isn't, although the album actually started off with a heavier Jamaican influence which (probably for the best) slid off to the sidelines. I'm not equating the origins of the members with the sounds on the record: it's not Italian-Ukrainian-Iranian-American rock.

Was Lennon spending time in the US during Plastic ono band ? Wasn't he retired in his countryside mansion in Britain ? (not that it changes anything since I don't think Plastic One band sounds american at all !)

It was before he moved to NYC, after he spent time doing primal scream therapy in Los ANgeles and then headed back to the UK (if Wiki is right)

I think the Israelites -> 19th Nervous Breakdown is about how stuff like music can be his religion, now that God has turned out to be a bunch of chipmonks.

I think the project as outlined in Mike Powell's review inadvertantly illustrates my general problem in a concise fashion -- their initial approach was at best pleasant to me but not deathless, and after initial spins I shrugged at both earlier albums. Now shifting to a 'back to the American heartland' approach is even LESS designed to interest me, which admittedly shouldn't surprise anyone who knows me, and praising a band for sounding more varied than the National or the Arcade Fucking Fire is real 'in the kingdom of the blind' stuff. Also I was asked if I was paying attention to the lyrics, which is always the last thing on my 'to notice' list. So in the end it's like, "Great, good on you, have fun...over there, away from me, thanks." Glad you're all happy if you are but wow is it not interesting to me, not at all.

Not that it's interesting per se, but I actually think the album is *about* this trend: resignation, defeat, returning to parochialism/provincialism after attempting to engage with the wider world, feeling trapped in genetics/homeland/history/tradition. Something like "Step" is expressly about getting nostalgic for all these bands that felt sui generis in 1990s adolescence(jandek, modest mouse, heiroglypics), and then observing that - even if these things keep informing your life in some way - your taste becomes more sanitized/comfortable/boring/mainstream as you get older, and that maybe that's not really such a bad thing after all.

That being said, the new album is sonically much more interesting than their first two.

I start to get in the album and like it.
I suspect it will keep growing on me.
As said before, I still miss the african/caribbean sounds and in a way, I think it's very good music but it doesn't really have their distinctive identity due to the change of approach in the arrangements and songwriting, mostly.
If I heard most of these tracks on the radio without knowing it's them, I don't think I would recognize them.
not necessarily a bad thing, though.
There are still two tracks that I don't like much, "finger back" and "worship", and somehow, that's the two tracks that remind me of AnCo...
I've had "step" in mind all the time for a day now !

the chorus of "worship you" is a bit soapy

They had that african/caribbean thing going for what? Two songs?

Somewhat more than that.

yeah, I'd have to check for more details but the african/caribbean thing was present, in various forms, in more than 2 songs !
I start to like "finger back" too.
so that leaves "worship" as the song I like the least for now.
and "hannah hunt" is gorgeous, especially once the full instrumentation kicks in.

I've got to the point where I love even the bits I originally thought were weak links. My favourite album since Let England Shake. There are so many delicious details in the production. Current crush is the middle eastern vocal sample and distant "hey!" at 0:52 in Worship You - reminds me of the Prodigy. And the more I listen the more off-base I find the idea that they've abandoned African music - there are elements of it throughout, especially in the vocals, just none of those high guitar lines.

funny, I was listening to this (again) a few minutes ago and realized that there actually ARE some african elements in the album. just not as obvious indeed.
like "everlasting arms". I can't pin exactly what but there's something in the rhythm/groove that's very "world music".

this band sucks

get it?

VAMPIRES

*slow claps*

**slits wrists, drinks own blood**

you must be feeling weakened

**rises from the dead like a phoenix**

up all night to get bloody

listening to the diane young and step youtubes they sound like they were recorded/made on a laptop. were they? be kinda cool if a popular band made their whole album on a laptop in a day. i'm all for efficiency.

at first I didn't like and see the point, musically, of "diane young" considering the rest of their work.
now I'm ok with it but I still don't see the point of it !

"step" is magnificent and sounds great, not laptopy at all !

there are some sweet laptops out there on the market. sounds very digi.

On a whim I bought this on vinyl (limited edition WHITE vinyl, to be exact) but the sound quality of the LP seems a bit muddy, which is weird because it also sounds pretty spare a lot of the time. The mp3s sound a bit better. Maybe it's a mastering issue or maybe my stereo sucks, actually I know my stereo sucks. Anyway, cool album.

Heard "Step" over the PA an expensive restaurant frequented by the comfortable and it sounded very much at home there (but I guess it sounds at home a lot of places, which is part of its charm)