Vampire Weekend

Add Date: May 14

Artist: Vampire Weekend

Album: Modern Vampires of the City

Label: XL

Genre: Pop

Comments: To attempt to categorize Vampire Weekend may be as difficult as tracing all of their samples and allusions. Consistently discounted as suburbanite Ivy Leaguers disconnected from the realities of their influences in Afrobeat and Afropop, Vampire Weekend, former denizens of the Columbia University basement scene, were catapulted to national festival headliner status with their self-titled debut LP. Marked by exceedingly intelligent lyrics pointing towards grammatical structure (I give a f**k about an Oxford comma) and Shakespeare and boasting a unique fusion of jazz, roots rock--not to mention African beats never before heard by much of the listening public--the album proved to contain a depth extending beyond their massively popular single, "A-Punk".

Their follow-up, Contra, sought to expand their meticulously engineered sounds into more electronically articulated territories: the simplicity of "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" was replaced by the synth-driven layers of "Giving Up the Gun". Modern Vampires of the City rounds out their intentional trilogy of albums and serves as the maturation of the musical style that has become inseparable from Vampire Weekend.

The lead singles of Modern Vampires of the City, "Step" and "Diane Young", are a statement alone in their choice as singles, which they deservedly attained. "Step" features arpeggiated harpsichord plucking trading off with piano and soft synths, which together gently hold Ezra Koenig's lilting voice aloft. "Diane Young" comes swinging right off of "Step" and harks back to Elvis Presley, Dick Dale, and the rockabilly of early rock and roll. Modern Vampires of the City asserts itself as an album, following in the more recent footsteps of Arcade Fire, and in doing so the illogical step from "Step" to "Diane Young" could suddenly be nothing else.

"Unbelievers" bolsters the A-side argument for a smoothed-out sound for Vampire Weekend, residing beautifully among rolling drums and organs. The B-sides wind down into the melancholic view of apocalyptic New York City in "Hudson", but not before "Finger Back" strikes an upbeat ode to the band's previous albums. The barreling "Worship You" finds Koenig vomiting words rapid-fire. Modern Vampires of the City hinges on on the deliciously understated and deceptively complex "Hannah Hunt", which serves as the mightily important fulcrum of the album and is the culmination of all previous Vampire Weekend attempts to find their perfect sound.

Modern Vampires of the City has its highlights and singles, but it does not lack the connective tissue that doomed previous efforts as vehicles for standouts. The album boasts its connective pieces and realizes the body as a whole smooth and interconnected being. Modern Vampires of the City is the album that dispels the qualms of critics and establishes Vampire Weekend's supremacy amongst the innovators of indie pop. Listen to tracks 3, 4, 2, 9, 6 and 10 and I dare you to disagree.