Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City

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)

hey guys there's an obvious Momus circa "Circus Maximus" rip-off in "Ya Hey!" for the spoken word part. Besides the (high-culture! low-culture!) lyrics in "the ancient Israelists, on their way to their 19th Nervous Breakdown" it's spoken precisely like Momus would've done it.

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)

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, May 20, 2013 9:16 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

use other memes please

The (expensive) restaurant was playing Lemon Sounds.

my lansing-dreiden reissue vinyl sounds soooooooooo good. you guys have to come over and hear those records. omg, I felt like a little kid when I played those. totally swept me away. I mean the CDs sounded fine all these years but it was like hearing the albums for the first time again.

"Unbelievers" reminds me of late 60s Kinks. has the pulse of a song like "Victoria" and lyrically also isn't far from Davies songs like "Big Sky"

ya hey is really good. a vampire weekend song about god could have been a disaster but it is perfect.

They're excellent arrangers of sound, I think. I mean you can imagine Coldplay doing 'Ya Hey', it's got all the requisite components except they would bludgeon the hell out of it in the most obvious way. VW have clearly thought about how every single element should sound, and where it should be in the mix, and in doing so steer it away from being a blunt and clumsy stadium ballad.

Amazing that a song so objectively irritating can be so effective.

But yeah the way the rhythm comes in and out is particularly crucial IMO

Hardly any guitar on this thing.

'ya hey' is p awesome, turns an otherwise forgettable song into something good

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

The first thing I noticed on that song was that the digital harpsichord had shuffle on it, not quite a piss-take but definitely a smile. It's not laptoppy but it... struts its artifice?

"Artifice" is a good word. Apparently, they experimented quite a bit during the recording process to get unusual sounds (see Wikipedia). However they did it, I like the sound. It doesn't sound too belabored or worked over, and the production suits the songs. You don't get the sense that the sonic bells and whistles are intrusive or distracting, like for instance you sometimes feel with Danger Mouse productions. Anyway, I'm really digging this album so far. If the first album had the melodies and the second the sound, I think they hit the trifecta with this one.

i genuinely love how scott pops into every thread and is like "eh, this new thing is OK I guess, here's this old thing that's awesome"

Every time I listen to this, I get the chorus to "Finger Back" stuck in my head.

xp been listening to Lansing-Dreiden for first time last 2 days tbh

So xgau gave this an A+.

i take back anything mean i ever said about him

yeah xgau is right. i think this is going to be considered a "classic" album because it gets better for me with each new listen. it also sounds pretty distinctive... the arrangements are more interesting than their earlier stuff.

This is a very solid album, but really loses steam on those last two tracks. "Hudson" is not listenable.

I quite like Young Lion.

Yeah, I like how it ends. It ends with them dying, right? 'The time has come' and the ticking clock brought back from Don't Lie. And then Young Lion is... What?

It just me or does Rostam sing "Young Lion", not Ezra?

He does.

(Rostam)

These lyrics perfectly tie up this album on a fairly uplifting note. As described in the description, this phrase helps combat many of the fears of 20somethings who are not sure what they want to do before they die.

Where as much of the rest of the album deals with a feeling of helplessness and abandonment, this song, combined with the nostalgic piano riff and the Panda Bear-like vocals, dispels these emotions with a blast of hope.

http://rapgenius.com/Vampire-weekend-young-lion-lyrics

Truth.

Pretty sure Lex wrote that.

i'm a bit late to the party here but 'ya hey' is such an immense song

I've got so many spotify plays to give. ezra doesn't want them I guess. ezra always was a disappointment in little league baseball: championship series

the new songs expanded nicely when they played them out live at red rocks. i figured them for a tinny, unimpressive live band but it was rather nice. strange that most of the crowd seemed to be there for 'of monsters and men' though especially since their ska song is their only one that isn't dreadful.

calling god "sweet thing" in "ya hey" is one of my favorite lyrical moments of the year, maybe ever.

this sags in places but the 123 of unbelievers>step>diane young is pretty incredible

The second half is a bit weaker... but it has "ya hey" !
Actually there are only 3 tracks that I don't like a lot (for now) : "don't lie" and "worship you" which are a bit too simple/basic to my taste and "hudson" which has an interesting mood but I never WANT to listen to it.
I went to their concert in Paris on Wednesday. It was a good time. they are not the greatest show on earth or anything but they have the songs, perform them well and are likeable.

I agree they front-loaded this, but there's not really any filler. I like "Hudson" as a closer, in mood it reminds me of "Fin" from Pavement's Brighten the Corners.

Yeah "Hudson" is very good as a closer in concept and I'm fine with it when I let the whole album flow. It's just that as a standalone song I don't enjoy it much.

Well, I can't imagine I would like to hear it on it's own, but since it's not released as a single or anything, I can't see why it is a problem? It works in the way it is supposed to work.