vampire weekend - only god was above us, out april 5, 2024

the fifth vampire weekend album is coming on april 5th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdpg-1mw7E0

tracklist:
01 “Ice Cream Piano”
02 “Classical”
03 “Capricorn”
04 “Connect”
05 “Prep-School Gangsters”
06 “The Surfer”
07 “Gen-X Cops”
08 “Mary Boone”
09 “Pravda”
10 “Hope”

With a title like that, you kind of have to involve DJ Khaled somehow, right?

Prep-School Gangsters

They only wish.

I'm glad Taylor Swift provided the titles.

Surprise! She also did all the music and everything. They're just faceless puppets now.

this is apparently a double-lp. vw's physical graffiti incoming??

A double LP of ten songs? I suppose they really ARE a jam band now.

So, who’s drumming and playing bass on this one?

Chris Tomson bringing some of that Taper's Choice jam energy back to his main gig?

lol xp Ned!

Jampire Weekend

Vampire Weekendless

the snippet of music in the trailer sounds cool

Listening to too much Dead (via Jake Longstreth of Time Crisis & Richard Pictures fame) and playing big festivals with an expanded band is a dangerous musical influence, but the last album was the first VW album I listened to more than once, so I'm looking forward to it.

they were pretty incredible on their last tour

I don't think you even need to fully blame Longstreth, considering that one of their very own has his own jam band with Dave Harrington and Alex Bleeker!

I didn't like the last album at all, but there's like a dozen and a half cuts from their first three albums that I still enjoy. Mixed together, they add up to a great little album.

re: it being a double lp - the tracks are arranged 3/3/3/1 so it may be that the last track is some sort of epic

note for note cover of dark star from venetta, oregon

But only if it has one of those fancy hologram things of naked pole guy. (iykyk)

Wasn't Vampire Weekend last album also a double as it had like 16 or 17 songs?

It was a double on vinyl because it was 58 minutes long and they didn't want to pull a Rundgren.

they did talk a bunch about how it was a 'double album' though which was a weird move when it was that short

like the idea of a 'double album' isn't very meaningful these days but if you're going to appeal to the classic concept of a double album at least make it 70+ minutes

It has 18 songs and great points ufo

We haven't gotten to the point in CD nostalgia were an artist will rhapsodize about making a classic CD Bloat-style LP (unless TayTay did & I missed it).

i want to say drake did but that might just be me misremembering conversations about streaming bloat albums

I loved that about De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising is like a perfect CD-length album, closing in on 70 minutes. I would never break it apart into four sides.

Last album was the album that sealed the deal for me whereas previously I'd regarded them with an air of "I kind of like this but I'm not sure I want to like it?", so hopefully this will be decent.

Ummm... but do I recall there was some chat a while ago about Ezra being into some dodginess? What became of that?

https://www.rookiemag.com/2016/09/the-infinity-diaries/

there was also the article from her a few years ago detailing an abusive ex where some of the details lined up with ezra, some of them didn't really, and she made a point of not naming anyone. there haven't been any further developments so it's still that at best he's a creep who dates 18 year olds (and rostam is also terrible for enabling that) and at worst he's much much worse.

https://live.staticflickr.com/4032/4718435334_db1f7b8151_c.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lCmyFCj580

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW9Qk00693c

some great production tricks that deserve better songs? i feel completely unmoved despite the arrangements being full of interesting ideas

otm

capricorn feels like a retread, but i dug gen x cops

^^ otm

Ariel Reichstadt putting in work.

yeah they sound cool

So where did all the double album talk come from? Wikipedia has the full tracklist up and it's only 10 songs/47 minutes.

Double vinyl at 45 rpm

Ahhh, thanks.

That second chorus on Capricorn tho

Capricorn sounds like a song Ezra can write in his sleep - but yeah that second chorus is very cool

this one is pretty great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP2FbpYs4t0

i also have come fully around on "capricorn," good song

Koenig looks like early '80s Lindsay Buckingham in those closeups.

Reminds me of Los Panchos rendition of El Negro Zumbon. Which could made a good VW sample tbh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTcoENyLpps

These new songs sound like Belle and Sebastian in a way that previous VW, to my ear, does not.

yeah i like this one more than the other two, songwriting feels like less of a re-tread and the arrangement is even better

It's painful to watch an upright bass being played like that

Super amped for this record. "Classical" is a total heater.

yeah i'm just bored by koenig as a songwriter now, album doesn't do much for me

Yeah 2 of the new songs are nice enough like ok besides. the other 2 I don’t care about. Out of 10 that doesn’t look good…

there's still some interesting production tricks across the whole album but eh

"mary boone" is cute and low stakes, like i imagine the rest of the album will be

I liked the grab-bag what-the-hell half-of-these-songs-are-outtakes vibe of the last one, this one is not suggesting anything similar

Does "Mary Boone" use the Soul II Soul shufflebeat?

fuck this ephebophile foprock

banger. no skips

band who time and time again delivers the most grower not shower albums and we got the gallery shitting on it after first skim. it's okay, we'll still be here when you come around.

did not anticipate The Surfer, which opens like some lost track off one of my 90s underground hip hop mixtapes before heading into All Things Must Pass territory.

this blends all the things i love from MVOTC and Contra.

Ever analytical, Koenig mused that Vampire Weekend’s albums each reflected patron saints. He named Paul Simon for the band’s self-titled 2007 debut, Joe Strummer and Sublime for “Contra” from 2010, Leonard Cohen for “Modern Vampires of the City,” and the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter, along with Phish, for “Father of the Bride.” The new album, he said, may reflect a short-lived tour he didn’t get to see: the 1997 pairing of Rage Against the Machine and Wu-Tang Clan, which reached the cover of Rolling Stone.

From New York Times article

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/20/arts/music/vampire-weekend-only-god-was-above-us.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

A Petrusich praises the new album in a lyrics focused review in the New Yorker

Yeah surprising that she considers it one of their best… maybe the 6 other tracks are all bangers ! We’ll see Friday

Looking forward to this, trying to keep my expectations measured. (I haven’t heard any of the singles/advance tracks yet, on purpose.)

MVOTC is my favorite record of theirs.

this is better than mvotc (their worst) at least i will give it that

there is a gigantic, very frustrating contrast between how clever some of the arrangements are and how bored i am by the songwriting though

Wait, has this album leaked? I'm not seeing in the usual places.

It depends where the others fall in line for you, but this has dethroned Contra as my personal favorite. I really believe it's their best work.

It sags slightly for me after the opener with Classical and Capricorn back to back, but really only because I overplayed those singles. The whole thing is rather psychedelic, especially Connect and Pravda. their acid album??

obviously Ezra is chief but this one does feel like a return to the core, whereas FOTB feels more and more like a solo sideshow

Xpost: it leaked yesterday

Huh. I'm not finding it.

it leaked a few days ago, it's on soulseek

"there is a gigantic, very frustrating contrast between how clever some of the arrangements are and how bored i am by the songwriting though"

this may be a very basic question - from a musician at that - but what's the difference between good arranging and good songwriting? isn't it...at some level...all the same craft?

Idk, I think you can work very hard to gussy up an ok song with ear candy at every moment. That feels like what's happening hear, although it would be interesting to hear more stripped down versions.

only been into these guys casually. remember liking modern vampires + really liking contra. haven't revisited in a while. will do that, but checking out the few new songs on the internet jukebox ahead of the proper release right now. they do seem to have gone fully technicolor sunshine pop revival (keep in mind, i skipped bride entirely). i like "classical" a lot. very bright music. the new material has me excited to see what else is in store.

^FotB was, to somewhat oversimplify things, their jam band influenced release with some country and baggy elements thrown in to ... divisive effect. i was a huge fan of the record at the time, but i don't know if it has aged super well over the past 5 years. i forget where i read this but somewhere someone wrote that it feels more like a Time Crisis LP more than a VW LP. Koenig has confirmed that Chris Tomson and Chris Baio had no involvement with it beyond touring it.

the new LP feels more like revisiting their past work (particularly MVotC) through a more wizened and melancholy perspective with deliberately harsher sonics. feels kinda fan servicey, but damn if it doesn't hit me right in the feels quite a bit lol

by songwriting i mean the core of the song - the melody/chords etc., with the arrangement being everything else around that. as anza says, "the surfer" transitions from a 90s hip hop beat to sounding like something from all things must pass and that's a pretty cool fusion and progression. the song itself though is just ok, i'm not really moved by it despite really liking what the arrangement is doing. the hooks aren't there!

fotb is a bit inconsistent but i like it more than this one.

I'm on record as saying FotB is the only VW album I like and have listened to more than once (particularly my playlist version). But listening to all the Time Crisis eps got me through the pandemic (even though I also hate the Dead and jam bands).

this is better than mvotc (their worst) at least i will give it that

― ufo, Tuesday, April 2, 2024 6:54 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

hoping that often-right poster ufo is wrong and the album is good. this is giving me hope (i love mvotc)

really have no idea what to say to the argument that MVOTC is their worst album

It took me a few listens to get beyond the feeling that it was a rehash, but now I like it a lot. The songs aren't as challenging or developed as Contra, and it doesn't feel as heavy as MVOTC, but I think the relative looseness of it is a nice through line and I find it frankly already a lot more listenable than FOTB, which five years later I still think is their worst. It's probably the most I've let an album of theirs wash over me, and the album of theirs I think most benefits from a soft listen, if that makes sense. I also find the thematic unity of it (let go the hatred in your heart o critical one) mollifying, or at least useful as a midlife/long-haul sentiment. I agree the arrangements and sonic juxtapositions are pulling a lot of weight, but I also don't really see the issue there from a critical vantage in part because I find the juxtapositions interesting.

mvotc is so clunky and plodding and the arrangements are really hollow and flimsy.

contra is their best and the debut is still very good too

Yeah but mvotc has "step".

i love how quiet the drums are in the mix of "classical." he's gone tin pan via dark star. overall, it kinda reminds me of how bill bruford described his time in yes: everything was an influence + it all had to get represented in their songs. similar vibe here, just without the intentional technical pyrotechnics.

he's asking a valid question in the chorus, too. other new songs are good. "classical" is promising a lot, though.

mvotc is so clunky and plodding and the arrangements are really hollow and flimsy.

i really disagree w/ this but i also think it's ezra's best songwriting across an album from a lyrical & melodic perspective. maybe the debut beats it & i do love the debut but that's a very "specific time in my life" album that i don't return to. if we're talking like objective VW album rankings i'd have to consider it more deeply but i haven't played it front to back in a really long time. i love contra, it has some of my fav songs by them, the homoeroticism of the back half of that record in particular still lingers, i just think as a front to back listen it sags in places where modern vampires does not

i honestly can't see an argument for any record aside from FOTB being their worst unless you're someone like jordan who doesn't like their other records and is coming at it from a totally different POV. i think conceptually it was an interesting direction and i liked a lot of the visual aesthetics and even some of the songs, "this life" is amazing, "big blue" etc but yeah the songs on that album just don't stand up to the rest of their discog imo

I'm on record as saying FotB is the only VW album I like

lol me too. I don't particularly care about the other guys' involvement or that it's mostly a Koenig-and-friends album, it has so many good tunes (and/or likable ones, not always the same thing). It could lose some, but I don't mind the meandering. Not very into the singles from this one, but I'll give it a listen. I think Koenig is talented, whatever else he may be.

Like, "Mary Boone" is OK, but it mostly makes me want to hear "Harmony Hall." (By far the VW song I encounter the most in the wild.)

Since Contra I've thought that Koenig's one of those white songwriters whose sensibilities most mesh with mine: inquisitive, well-schooled in rock/pop/rap history enough to know how much a light sheen of electronics plus forcebeat + dub rhythms will put over these songs about being privileged enough. For me they made no bad albums. "Giving Up the Gun" and "Diplomat's Son" are two of my favorite songs of the last two decades.

FOTB is their weakest, I guess, but as an experiment in opening up their sound after the departure of their most crucial member it committed venal sins. He never sounded warmer while at the same interrogating how warm he could go.

that's a very "specific time in my life" album that i don't return to.

how I feel about all Vampire Weekend albums

“Harmony Hall” was in my top ten songs of whatever year that was, but the parent record didn’t really hold my attention beyond maybe 4-5 songs. Save the duets and left turns for your solo record, Ezra!

Which in essence FOTB was.

he was outright calling it a solo album in a recent interview

I appreciate the acknowledgment of that in their recent press, as at the time it wasn’t really talked about by EK at all. (I know I was kind of a jerk about it back then, but it just felt really weird.)

"This Life" is an all-time jam and easily one of their top five best.

agree

I thought I didn't really care about Vampire Weekend until "Harmony Hall," so we'll see how this one lands for me

Here we go

https://www.stereogum.com/2257327/vampire-weekend-only-god-was-above-us/reviews/premature-evaluation/

I’ll agree MVOTC is clunky but it also has “hannah hunt” which might be my favorite song in their catalogue.

"hannah hunt" is one of the few highlights on it yeah

BNM'd over at Pitchfork as well

like with mvotc what happened to their wonderful sense of rhythm on the first two albums? gone completely

I have never understood why Hannah Hunt is held in such high regard relative to the rest of their catalog. I loved the first three VW albums to death, played them constantly, and never connected with that song.

among other reasons, “hannah hunt” is extremely pretty and has the moment where ezra goes up an octave to sing the last chorus

understand where ufo is coming from about the rhythmic sameness of much of mvotc, but it definitely marked a lyrical and melodic level-up in my book, that made up for their transition into a somewhat more traditional rock outfit.

Cool cool -- no consensus as ever.

In the spirit of no consensus, I'll just throw out that I don't get the love for Contra at all. And I quite like the two surrounding albums

mvotc definitely not a melodic level up, first two albums are just jam-packed with hooks and the melodies on mvotc are not completely there - there's some good ones but also plenty that are lacking

another thing is that baio's high melodic basslines worked well very well with the styles of the first two albums but playing in the same way doesn't work anywhere near as well for mvotc's plodding chamber pop tunes and it just leaves the songs feeling empty at the bottom end

the new one really makes it obvious how fotb was a completely different band though, you can very much hear the rhythm section's distinct style is back, but it fits better here than on mvotc. i just wish koenig had written some tunes though

I can hum "Diane Young," "Worship You," "Everlasting Arms," "Unbelievers," especially "Step."

Curious - do any of you go back to Father of the Bride? I probably haven’t listened to it since the year it came out, although the line “we go together like Keats and Yeats” still pops into mind with disconcerting frequency.

Well I love Hannah Hunt because it’s just such a well written song. The breakup metaphors in the lyrics are simple, but smart. I also love how nothing overstays its welcome… just as you’re about to get impatient by it, it explodes into this brief emotional outburst and then just fades away calmly. It also breaks my heart and I had no idea VW were capable of doing that. I just sort of thought of them as a sunny, quirky band of privileged kids.

Sure. "Unbearably White," "Jerusalem, New York, Berlin," "Harmony Hall," a couple others I'm forgetting. "This Life," like I said, is an all-timer.

so i revisited everything the past few days. thoughts...

first album is fun! they sounded like talking heads a little bit and that was cool. "kids don't stand a chance" is a big tune. 3 mics.

contra hangs together as an album really well. i think that's what makes me like this one a lot more than the first: it has more depth. everything about it: songs are more layered, sequencing tells a better story, just overall amelioration. and "giving up the gun" is on it. 4 mics.

modern vampires was so easy to like because it felt like a pure pop makeover of contra. why wouldn't you like more of a good thing? i like "hannah" a lot but it just doesn't hit the same independent of its album neighbors. it's kind of another 'all or nothing' listen. but always satisfying, even a decade later. 4 mics.

i had never heard father before yesterday. it's alright. idk. country flourishes 'n schitt. it's still pretty new to me, but yes we'll go with 'messy transitional album' for now. it's doing too much, but sounds alright while doing it. same kinda energy as mj putting up 63 and the bulls still losing. oh well, was fun to see! 3 mics (for now).

i will say this to end: none of their material has ever resonated with me as instantly as "classical" has.

imo, all their albums are good to great and jam-packed with hooks. MV happens to be my favorite, too, but I won't argue with anyone who says Contra is best.

Contra remains my favorite, but like j0rdan remarked yesterday, the queer back half colors my reaction.

mvotc is full of piano lines you can sing, they're as strong as the vocal melodies imo

contra is my fav as well, but it's a matter of degrees with the first three. fotb is great tho, and seeing it live upped my appreciation. "jerusalem, new york, berlin" is my fav from that one.

the photo used for this cover art:
https://i.imgur.com/AGfjNLr.jpeg

Looking at FotB I can sing at least Big Blue, 2021, Married in a Gold Rush, and Sunflower without having listened to it in awhile. I also think the 'jam band' thing is way overblown and probably repeated uncritically from the press release/interviews, I mean it's all tightly structured songs without any more instrumental breaks than the new songs.

Also it seems like they may as well make Ariel Reichstadt a band member.

the jam band-y stuff did come through in a live setting. they stretched "sunflower" out to 9 mins, for example.

contra is an album so jam-packed with ideas and hooks that they could have probably made an entire career out of the sound of just one of the songs on it

"mvotc is full of piano lines you can sing, they're as strong as the vocal melodies imo"

this is true of some songs on Contra as well. Taxi Cab comes to mind.

xps I like "Hannah Hunt" quite a bit too. FWIW, whenever I play Vampire Weekend, it's a 16-cut mix drawn from their first three albums, and placed right after "Run," "Hannah Hunt" makes a bigger impression.

The new one's not bad, but I'm still much more partial to their records with Rostam Batmanglij. They're still a singles band to me, and at least going by what's listed here as 'singles,' with the exception of "Horchata," the other 14 from those first three albums are pretty much the ones I go back to, along with "Obvious Bicycle" and "Hannah Hunt."

(Should clarify, the ones where Rostam was a full-fledged band member.)

It's hard not to miss Rostam. Even when you can tell they're still reaching for the same kinds of cultural/sonic juxtapositions (the stiff, properly enunciated choir next to the swing/R&B loop on "Mary Boone," for example), it still doesn't touch the innovation of something like "Diplomat's Son," which still sounds so novel and challenging and effortless and *pleasurable* to me.

Curious - do any of you go back to Father of the Bride?

Just put it on last night as a result of this thread. (the post above where I said I wanted to hear "Harmony Hall" — I did!)

Still enjoyed it. I like singles from the three before it but as I'm sure I've said on other VW threads, I just don't like their rhythm section. It's a hangup for me, the songs feel stifled. I get that for a lot of people those albums work, but they feel claustrophobic and clipped to me. Singles are fine but too many songs in a row and it just feels kinda airless? I think that's a big reason I like the expansiveness and/or sloppiness of FotB.

My revelation on VW in a way came via “Warm Heart of Africa” — I had concluded I didn’t really like the band, but I loved that song and I was like, OK, I like Koenig with a good beat.

i probably rate all of their albums about equally. some aspects i like more about some vs others but it never really cohered into a stable strict ranking. fotb has the most bad songs, but it's also the longest, which should be factored in imo. they're a special band

fotb has the most bad songs, but it's also the longest

duds on fotb: "sympathy", "sunflower", "we belong together"

duds on mvotc: "unbelievers", "everlasting arms", "finger back", "ya hey", "hudson"

unbelievers is a banger, you are tripping

that list of MVotC "duds" is bonko! lol

i'll give you "hudson" but the first 2 are standouts and "finger back" has grown on me.

FotB duds: "married in a gold rush," "my mistake," "sympathy," "we belong together" - that 3 song stretch from "married..." to "sympathy" is the nadir of the record for me.

I love Married in a Goldrush, it's funny and has a great chorus. I'll give you Sympathy, but We Belong Together is a good time. I like all of the Danielle Haim songs.

duds on mvotc: "unbelievers", "everlasting arms", "finger back", "ya hey", "hudson"

are you fucking kidding me

would claim at least three of those as my favorite vampire weekend song

"Ya Hey" IS their best song imo

Midway through my first listen my reaction is that it’d be cool to hear Spoon do a full album cover of these songs

I'll never get past the roboticized squeak in "Ya Hey."

it's a decent lyric but the vocal effect is ridiculous, it's awfully plodding and the bass isn't enough to carry the song either. i have trouble understanding how anyone thinks it's one of their best

happily surprised to see j-zone in the credits for a couple of songs here

never really fucked with them until a few years ago, when I spent an afternoon with the VW essentials equivalent on quobuz, but the indie rock channel via Sirius is playing nothing but the band's shit, the new record and songs they like, this morning it was Genesis "I Can't Dance" and Sean Paul "Like Glue"…

1. He may resemble Paul Simon in multifarious ways (has he acknowledged that he's into Simon?) but vocally he resembles Bob Dorough, uncannily so.

2. A motif that seems to pop up all over his works is this rapidly picked, ascending/descending guitar line…it suggests to me that he cares about fancy guitar playing and aspires to play really really well, way beyond what post indie rock guys typiucally wish to achieve…

3. There's this new song "Capricorn," he talks about recording it in an interview segment and wanting it to be heavy, but a new, original kind of heavy, in between Sabbath and shoegaze shit: and yet, it seems to me that incumbent on "heavy" is to be dark, mean, doomy, and this guy and his band are not capable of projecting that quality, and indeed the resulting recording is not recognizable as heavy.

1. Yep.

They must have used some of his drum loops, presumably? (J-Zone)

thought so, though he's been a session drummer for a while so possibly playing live? credited as drums for capricorn and hope

Sampled, he has a few posts about it on his site:
https://jaymumfordmusic.com/

hope everyone can come together and agree people giving j-zone money is a good thing

Also anything that gives Vampire Weekend better beats.

you're talking about the band that made "bryn" and "cousins"?

duds on mvotc: "unbelievers", "everlasting arms", "finger back", "ya hey", "hudson"

are you fucking kidding me

― ivy., Thursday, April 4, 2024 10:55 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Indefensible

you're talking about the band that made "bryn" and "cousins"?

yes, good examples of their clatter-over-groove rhythmic approach. which on a first listen I hear too much of on the new one too.

Having LOTS OF THINGS HAPPENING FAST on the drums does not equal "good beats."

Hm. I never thought of business as a VW trait/weakness.

“bryn” is pretty rhythmically weird, with the clave and the african-inspired behind the beat groove.

cousins does have lots of things happening fast, but in a good way imo

If you're looking for a traditional rhythm section, "This Life" from the last album is tight.

if you want clatter-over-groove it's there on mvotc but "bryn" and "cousins" have great drums

"Bambina" is the best song from FOTB no one's mentioned. "2021," too. Both under 2 min. The way he plays with tempo and time is really alluring to me.

what i have learned from this flurry of thread activity is that some people love Vampire Weekend and some people do not like Vampire Weekend.

I do like VW but I kind of feel that I can't really be surprised by any new VW song any more. They seem to have settled into their musical identity, which is fine. They have a pleasant and recognizable sound. But for me to really get excited about a new VW song I think it would have to have something extra, like an attention-grabbing lyric or something. I listened to the FOTB singles a few times, and then kind of forgot about the album. I feel like the same pattern may repeat this time.

like an attention-grabbing lyric or something

Like starting your album with "Fuck the world"?

first listen...

stereogum distortion/"noise" discussion p relevant; this album gets chaotic noisy in really short bursts. from shoegaze to free jazz, it seems pretty intentional. "play it fucking loud" or whatever.

lol "connect" rips off dido/"stan"

the budget just seems to get bigger + bigger, the music follows. this was their second longest break between albums. hrmph. i can say right now, i like it way more than father. feels like an intentional move to create such "BIG" sounding music. it very much has a "classic" sound in the way it was recorded. those orchestrations on something like "the surfer" simultaneously recall fleet foxes + frank sinatra. maybe he's taken the 'pop music is the classical music of today' philosophy to heart + these are his attempts. idk, def sounds like vw... just a bizarro world variant where fela kuti + brian wilson are frequent collaborators. shaun ryder likes to hang out sometimes too.
i'll leave lyric deep diving to more dedicated folks. he's got something on his mind, that's for sure. i'm just enamoured with the sound of it all. for now i'll just say it's really good + i like it a lot.

Ok I like the Surfer. Sounds like trip hop mixed with 60’s psychedelic pop. Good for you VW. Well done.

Pravda also a highlight

These dudes record more insouciant music than the analyses suggest and their lyrics portend; they make imaginary pop music that they think in an ideal world will get played alongside Jack Harlow.

that ambition on full display on the new record.

(shrug) i like the idea of music "saving the world" or whatever.

Btw I didn't like any of the singles much, but everything works much better as an album without too much weight on any one song. Ariel Reichstadt really cooked on this.

(also considering that this is supposed to be a "band" record, it's funny that all the best drum parts are sampled from someone else)

what i have learned from this flurry of thread activity is that some people love Vampire Weekend and some people do not like Vampire Weekend.

and that some people have incredibly wrong opinions about what constitutes a Vampire Weekend banger.

I'm on team "Unbelievers" is an immense banger, fwiw.

one half-attentive listen in, and I liked it a lot. going to play it more over the weekend

I like this album fine but a lot of it feels like loading up on sonic fuckery to obscure that they write the same melody over and over. I wouldn’t say “Gen-X Cops” is the best song but at least the riff has a slightly sour element instead of their standard mid tempo swooning.

I think that nails it, all the big choruses feel very similar melodically and in terms of the chord movement? Theory posse please chime in.

I also heard part of their takeover of XMU on satellite radio. I think I'm going to like this one a lot more than the last one. still love the first three.

it strikes me as very similar to MVOTC. which is my favorite album of theirs, so no complaints there really

haven't had the time to figure out the choruses to see that they're similar, but i did realize that the chorus progression of "capricorn" is pretty similar to the one from lady gaga's "shallow"

i think my favorite so far is "connect," which is just jazzy and weird enough to feel like it could've been on the glass beach album from this year

Like starting your album with "Fuck the world"?

I don’t know, that seems a half hearted effort. I think their lyrics were more provocative on their first two albums. They were singing about privilege in an unapologetic way, something you don’t often hear in rock lyrics. Their lyrics now seem kind of safe.

"Each generation makes its own apology" and "Armistice, we never tried it," and "When I come home it won't be home to you" are aphoristic in the best way imo.

Also: "fuck the world" is said by the person playing Koenig's lover iirc

On that Sirius XM XMu interview, Koenig says he invited Dev Hines of Blood Orange to hang out with them in the studio. He says he told Hines he was having trouble completing the song Prep School Gangsters. Hines wanted to assist on guitar but had a broken arm at the time. He says Hines despite the arm then managed to play drums on the cut.

Koenig also talked about a violinist & guitarist who had worked with the Killers ; and a guitarist/ sax player who will be joining them on tour. Not sure if they were on the album.

Ice Cream Piano was recorded initially when Koenig was living in London. And now he’s talking about Durruti Column

This album feels like a reversion to… everything I ever liked about VW.

Yeah I went in a bit skeptical but after a few plays I like it. There are plenty of lovely moments. I’m not sure there are tracks as strong as their best but I like « The Surfer » and « Hope » a lot so far. In the former the transition from the verse to the solo/chorus with the horns is absolutely beautiful. And it may be a grower since I didn’t care much about the singles but they’re fine in the context of the album (except “GenX cops » which is the only track I don’t like).

“gen x cops” is one of the best ones on here

Eheh it’s a good sign when people have totally different favourite tracks on an album ! I’m not a big fan of their faster tracks in general

This album feels like a reversion to… everything I ever DISliked about VW.

OK, that's an overstatement, I like several songs here. But things like "Connect" and "Mary Boone" to me drown in their unnecessary busy-ness and ornamentation. "The Surfer" and "Pravda" probably my faves, "Gen-X Cops" is good, "Hope" is good but goes on a bit.

I think what I still really want is an Ezra solo album with Danielle Haim on hand and, I don't know, Questlove producing or something.

"The Surfer," see, is the one that sounds busy. "Hope" is better realized, but as I played it while showering an hour ago I wondered if it earned its extended coda.

The Surfer has a lot of sonic layers but it doesn't feel cluttered to me, because the dubby spaciousness gives a lot of room. But also I just like the tune.

i'm going to be obnoxious re:the long vampout on "hope" + say damn wonder if those dudes were listening to any fishmans recently.

I like "Hope" but it sounds really familiar and I keep trying to figure out what existing songs it sounds like. I'm pretty sure the verses are "99 Luftballons," but what is the chorus?

it's "kids don't stand a chance" through the looking glass. the call really was coming from inside!

(sorry just getting tired of seeing the "he's ripping off himself!"* critique. of course he is, he's him.)

*not here. elsewhere online.

chorus of “hope” isn’t reminding me of anything particular, but it feels like a very fundamental melody, like an old folk song or nursery rhyme

funny to see luft balloons mentioned in the context of Hope. I read someone else suggest that Ice Cream Piano sounds a bit like it when it revs up, which I can kinda hear.

Yeah « Hope » has something very simple/trad/anthemic. I really like the beat and how the song builds up.

« Pravda » has a nice afropop riff like on their first album and I like it but it feels like it doesn’t really go anywhere and is not fully finished. But again it may be a grower

on the contrary: it's one of the two or three best developed songs, including lyrically

Pravda is a sleeper hit for me. Masterfully restrained until the final third goes into the psychedelic deep end. The chord progression in the verse is brilliant, incredibly affecting ("Irina grew up in Wisconsin").

At best this album is a grower for me. We’ll see…

I liked this album on my once through, it has a great vibe to it.

Glad I stayed away from listening to the pre released singles, so I had no reference to what is what.

they have Voodoo Glow Skulls opening for them on some dates of the new tour, interesting

'90s Nostalgia, baby!

Bringing that Warped Tourcore!

Skankin' Pickle was not available

great album

they're performing a solar eclipse show in austin now: https://veeps.com/vampireweekend/f9f906cb-6671-41f5-925b-732deae766fc

"connect"...damn

Happy 40th, EK!

Very surprised by how much I like this one. I went in thinking eh, seems like a retread, let's keep expectations low, and came out the other end thinking "this is the best thing they've done since Contra." I don't think any one song on here is as good as "Diplomat's Son," but as an album I think it's great. Probably helps that I didn't really listen to the singles, so I'm hearing it as a whole.

Standouts for me at the moment are probably "Gen-X Cops," "Mary Boone," "The Surfer," "Capricorn." I have other thoughts but can't seem to articulate them yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kisi5ZIjxo

oh this one is really cool

Played this record on repeat over the weekend. It might be their best? Modern Vampires 2.0, which I'm not complaining about. Love its melodies and flow -- it is a brisk listen and the first album I've heard in some time that makes me want to hit play immediately after it ends. There are so so many incredible sonic studio details that I find thrilling that somehow do not distract...filters, strings, horns, choirs, tempo shifts... I will get around to listing them out at some point. I would love to hear the demos because I suspect the transformations would be remarkable.

Favorite tracks: "Classical," "Connect," "Pravda," "Hope"

Yeah I’ve played it so much it’s hard to believe it was only released 5 days ago ! I do think it may be their best produced album and totally agree about the fantastic sonic voyage it is.

man i really love that bonus track

I would love to hear the demos because I suspect the transformations would be remarkable.

Made me like the song more, actually

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs0GOt3BY6E

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/vampire-weekend-added-to-coachella-2024-weekend-1-set-times/

Included on them are a surprise last minute addition, Vampire Weekend, who play on Saturday (4/13).

^ yep. called that weeks ago when the tour schedule dropped!

On one hand, I respect them for sticking with tradition, but on the other kind of annoyed that Japan only bonus tracks are still a thing in 2024.

Only given a couple listens so far but the production is a lot more interesting than the melodies, many of which are similar to earlier VW songs. "Connect" is my favorite and feels almost entirely like a studio creation

kind of annoyed that Japan only bonus tracks are still a thing in 2024.

― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, April 9, 2024 4:35 PM

firm agree. i'm boycotting the song tbh.

they still buy cds in japan! if we still bought cds at target, there would still be target bonus tracks

lol, considering that you can now listen to the bonus tracks instantly, what's the difference?

The "Gen-X Cops" demo is exactly what I expected.

whoahoaoaa this album is awesome!!!!!!!

i think my favorite so far is "connect," which is just jazzy and weird enough to feel like it could've been on the glass beach album from this year

― the defenestration of prog (voodoo chili), Friday, April 5, 2024 7:24 PM (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

agreed

Makes sense. "200" and "Slip Under the Door" are Glass Beach's VW songs.

loooool these dudes joined Goose, the new jamband scene darlings, for a 37-minute "Gen-X Cops > Cade Cod Kwassa Kwassa" last night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLlVcnCW-vU

great album

― flopson, Monday, April 8, 2024 1:05 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

upgrading this to “fantastic album.” i just adore everything about it

My wife pointed out that the beat from Mary Boone was lifted from Primitive Radio Gods and now I can’t unhear it.

Which itself was borrowed from Soul II Soul's "Back to Life", which is why Soul II Soul is credited for "Mary Boone".

oh ha, I didn't see that credit.

ha, I only just saw it last night, tbf

daaaaamn -- it debuted at #27. Their last three albums debuted at #1.

stream numbers on spotify seem pretty low too

I want to listen but can't stand the compression

okay let's give this a whirl

oh I like how blown-out the production is

don't really like the songwriting. impressive sounds put to the service of the usual courtly humdrum

they are really impressive sounds mind

i'm coming around on this a little but it's really such a contrast between how good the production & arrangements are and how the songs themselves are just generally ok at best

agree entirely, but my expectations were lower so I'm probably more impressed by the production than I'm disappointed by the songs

it's at #11 in the UK (and #4 in Scotland). surprised to see it bombing in the US.

i'm still extremely impressed by the production, it's a return to the brilliant creativity of contra. i just wish the tunes were as good but i'm coming around to the moodier, more suspended thing it's going for here

wonder if it bombing has anything to do with the billboard methodology changes around indie record stores or whatever it is?

the worst songs on this are "gen-x cops" and "hope". "capricorn" and "mary boone" are at least a much better & more interesting version of what they were doing on mvotc. "ice cream piano" is probably the best tune on the album but the least impressive arrangement? the arrangement is still good it's just not really impressing me with how novel it is like a lot of the others. i'm really coming around to the chaotic, jazzy, suspended feeling of "classical" and "connect"

the overall feeling of the album makes me think they've been listening to like, cornelius and 90s shibuya-kei stuff? "broken washing machine" especially

y'all know infinitely more about chart expectations and performance than i do, but do we think very many people really care about Vampire Weekend at this point? some New Yorkers, probably, and some aging Millennials, music critics and some stray Time Crisis / Grateful Dead fans, but otherwise, i don't know who we're expecting to push this album higher than ~#27. (and i love them, to be clear.)

fotb hit #1 and they were playing pretty big venues that tour still, even some arenas. it's quite a drop off

they still do have some arenas booked on their upcoming tour

wonder if it bombing has anything to do with the billboard methodology changes around indie record stores or whatever it is?

That certainly won't help their chart positions, but... if we're comparing apples to apples at the record store chain I work at, we sold around 1/3 the copies we sold of "Father of the Bride" first week. Big drop-off.

Seems to be happening to a lot of artists of (very roughly) their vintage? Last albums by MGMT, Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, Jack White, etc... all artists of a certain age, all headed to the "play the old songs for us" phase of their careers, it seems. It comes for the best (and worst) of us...

this one's quite a bit better than the most recent albums by any of those artists at least

maybe it's just a result of people losing interest after fotb

My album preferences after a dozen or so listens:

Modern Vampires
Contra
Only God
FOTB
s/t

i think it's simple. in order to sell 127k, you need a lot of normies to buy in. "harmony hall" and "this life" were crossover hits, getting some adult contempo and triple-a play, not just the regular alt-rock radio and xmu spins, while none of the singles from this gained any traction. that still matters at the tippy top of the charts.

hoping to score some day-of discounted tickets for one of the MSG shows in the fall

this one's quite a bit better than the most recent albums by any of those artists at least

I believe it. The reviews have been great for sure.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

VW monthly listeners on Spotify fairly anemic compared to what one might imagine. I have to order Cage the Elephant this week, so was looking them up, and they have double the monthly listeners that VW has. And that's after their last album stiffed (comparatively).

Had Billboard changed the rules about counting album/ticket bundling by 2019? If not, the handling of this for FOTB felt a little like cooking the books. I went with my best friend and her husband. When the tour went on sale, he bought the tickets, each of which were supposed to come with *1 COPY* of the album on either vinyl or CD (he chose CD). So we had three copies coming our way. Except they kept sending him follow-up emails about "Have you picked your albums yet? Please pick your albums!" and he replied every time until one day a box showed up at their apartment containing *12 COPIES* of FOTB on CD.

We kept three and flipped the rest.

lol

fotb is also a double album. do they still count each "sale" of a double album as two sales?

if you have a way to get around the paywall there's a billboard.com article from when FOTB went no 1 that answers a lot of these questions

https://www.billboard.com/pro/vampire-weekend-father-of-the-bride-no-1-billboard-200/

Of Father’s 138,000 unit start, its 119,000 in album sales were driven largely by sales generated from a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer for the act’s upcoming tour, which launches in June.

[...]

Father earned just 1,000 in TEA units and 18,000 in SEA units. The latter figure translates to 20.29 million on-demand audio streams for the set’s songs in its opening week — the biggest debut streaming week for a rock album in 2019.

That photo is not the Ezra whom I fell in love with.

even putting aside the ticket bundling thing, i think the arc makes sense if you think of album sales as being more so reflective of the public's opinion on the previous album. there was a lot of enthusiasm coming off of a critical/commercial peak in MVOTC that was reflected in the enthusiasm for FOTB, which is their most divisive album, hence them shedding some part of their audience w/ the subsequent album

it had also been five years, which in another era was a long time but in the streaming era, well.

Yeah. Release performance is more often than not a referendum on the previous release... and they have been away for a minute... and no single really connected... and the last one benefited from bundling (though the earlier releases that didn't also bested this record's performance, right?).

Whether the music is good or not aside, they do seem as if from a bygone era. Like, how much Hipster Runoff-core artists still remains at the center of the pop universe? Lana for sure. There are others I guess, but it has been a long time. Also, 27 is a heckuva lot better than not charting (which is the fate of MGMT, of montreal, etc).

too lazy to actually look into it but Lana's critical/commercial peak came after her/the HRO era, no?

for me, this is becoming their best material.

too lazy to actually look into it but Lana's critical/commercial peak came after her/the HRO era, no?

First album was HR-era for sure. Not after that though (I don't think).

Has John Lennon weighed in on this goofy band's goofy album title yet?

another 26 albums were also above them btw

— ﹌ (@cyphariana) April 16, 2024

Wait a second, are we saying that FOTB is a New Jersey?

man, ya'lls obsession with that nj shit is completely beyond me. not trying to start a fight with anyone or you nate (because you specifically are rad, don't change), but... anything to avoid discussing the actual music, i guess. these days, seems like someone inevitably brings it up re:any new release by an established act. i get the concept i just don't get why you're all so smitten with it. anyway. /vent

uhhh my man until I revived this thread we were discussing the music

170 posts worth

Not sure #11 in the UK is much to sing about. All the Twitter terfs got Roisin to #5 and this week The Libertines made #1

fotb is also a double album. do they still count each "sale" of a double album as two sales?

It -- like alot of newer albums -- was only a double on vinyl. Otoh, most of the sales probably *were* on vinyl, so...

I do feel that Billboard's chicanery probably screwed a little with the new. Most of the people willing to buy this band's stuff on physical are going to do it at an indie shop. On that tip, they might even be waiting until this weekend and RSD to buy it there.

the New Jersey thread remains one of my favorite ILM experiences ever. to each his own, i guess.

anyway, VW is coming to my podunk town to play an 8K-cap amphitheater and they are better than any of the other dozens of bands playing the venue this summer. whether the place will be full or a quarter full, i'm stoked.

In my head FOTB was underwhelming not because it was a hollow recitation of VW’s winning formula but because it mostly jettisoned various components of that formula, which components turned out to have been a crucial part of the band’s appeal - this is really underscored by how precisely my increased enjoyment of OGWAU correlates to the appearance of a course correction. But maybe I am idiosyncratic on this point and the surprising arrangements and flourishes aren’t that important to most VW fans?

because you specifically are rad, don't change

Right back at ya, Austin.

I gotta ask what does it even mean to be a “new jersey” I’m reading without knowing what that reference is.

Every huge artist has their "New Jersey" - a huge event album that ultimately feels a bit hollow & signals a career decline

Not sure #11 in the UK is much to sing about. All the Twitter terfs got Roisin to #5 and this week The Libertines made #1

― groovypanda, Wednesday, 17 April 2024 19:22 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

i wasn't singling it out as a good thing. the previous three were all top three. the scotland chart intrigues me though as i feel releases by long established rock/indie/whatever acts almost always do better there(?), even if the actual sales numbers are probably small

In my head FOTB was underwhelming not because it was a hollow recitation of VW’s winning formula but because it mostly jettisoned various components of that formula, which components turned out to have been a crucial part of the band’s appeal - this is really underscored by how precisely my increased enjoyment of OGWAU correlates to the appearance of a course correction. But maybe I am idiosyncratic on this point and the surprising arrangements and flourishes aren’t that important to most VW fans?

FOTB not a New Jersey.

I resist coming back to this one (although I quite like most of the tunes) because of the clattery, compressed production. In particular the drums — I hate them. I hate the way they sound, and I hate the space they take up in the mix. They actively annoy me while I’m listening.

I think I’m v much in the minority on this.

You are, but not alone!

Having LOTS OF THINGS HAPPENING FAST on the drums does not equal "good beats."

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, April 5, 2024 3:16 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

Perhaps inevitably from its grave debuting sales, it only lasted one week on either the US or UK charts. (Actually, I'd have expected at least a second week in the UK, at number 76 or something, but nah).

Only God Can Chart Us

Vampire Weakened

I dunno, they are playing 4 nights in London at 3-5000 capacity venues so I think there is still a solid audience for them (and two nights in Manchester) - I'm looking forward to it anyway...

They pretty much sold out two nights at MSG with over five months to go. Maybe they've already turned into a legacy act - no one buys the new stuff but they'll pay big for an arena show?

16 years since their debut album. For the stones it was basically Tattoo you (64-81). Yeah maybe they are legacy act for aged fans now !

Good episode of NYT Popcast hosted by Jon Pareles feat. Amanda Petrusich and Matthew Strauss

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/17/arts/music/popcast-vampire-weekend.html

without any evidence or argument to back up my position: my feeling is this would have performed better if they hadn't gone major

They did that a long time ago; I reckon over 90% of Vampire Weekend songs are in a major key

Get your limited edition VW metrocard:

https://www.amny.com/transit/vampire-weekend-metrocards-available-manhattan/

You’d think they’d have one with the album cover.

Yeah, it does seem like Steven Siegel the cover photographer/artist might've denied them the rights for this purpose, since it would've worked perfectly.