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
― ufo, Friday, 16 February 2024 09:48 (four months ago) link
otm
― corrs unplugged, Friday, 16 February 2024 11:50 (four months ago) link
capricorn feels like a retread, but i dug gen x cops
― the defenestration of prog (voodoo chili), Friday, 16 February 2024 13:16 (four months ago) link
^^ otm
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 16 February 2024 13:16 (four months ago) link
Ariel Reichstadt putting in work.
― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Friday, 16 February 2024 14:39 (four months ago) link
yeah they sound cool
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Friday, 16 February 2024 15:21 (four months ago) link
So where did all the double album talk come from? Wikipedia has the full tracklist up and it's only 10 songs/47 minutes.
― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 16 February 2024 15:44 (four months ago) link
Double vinyl at 45 rpm
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 16 February 2024 15:45 (four months ago) link
Ahhh, thanks.
― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 16 February 2024 15:47 (four months ago) link
That second chorus on Capricorn tho
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 16 February 2024 17:38 (four months ago) link
Capricorn sounds like a song Ezra can write in his sleep - but yeah that second chorus is very cool
― alpine static, Friday, 16 February 2024 18:31 (four months ago) link
this one is pretty great
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP2FbpYs4t0
― the defenestration of prog (voodoo chili), Thursday, 14 March 2024 17:19 (three months ago) link
i also have come fully around on "capricorn," good song
― the defenestration of prog (voodoo chili), Thursday, 14 March 2024 17:23 (three months ago) link
Koenig looks like early '80s Lindsay Buckingham in those closeups.
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 14 March 2024 17:25 (three months ago) link
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
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 14 March 2024 17:58 (three months ago) link
These new songs sound like Belle and Sebastian in a way that previous VW, to my ear, does not.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 14 March 2024 18:16 (three months ago) link
yeah i like this one more than the other two, songwriting feels like less of a re-tread and the arrangement is even better
― ufo, Thursday, 14 March 2024 22:22 (three months ago) link
It's painful to watch an upright bass being played like that
― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Friday, 15 March 2024 19:15 (three months ago) link
Super amped for this record. "Classical" is a total heater.
― ripersnifle, Saturday, 23 March 2024 04:12 (two months ago) link
yeah i'm just bored by koenig as a songwriter now, album doesn't do much for me
― ufo, Sunday, 31 March 2024 08:58 (two months ago) link
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…
― AlXTC from Paris, Sunday, 31 March 2024 09:25 (two months ago) link
there's still some interesting production tricks across the whole album but eh
― ufo, Sunday, 31 March 2024 09:53 (two months ago) link
"mary boone" is cute and low stakes, like i imagine the rest of the album will be
― the defenestration of prog (voodoo chili), Sunday, 31 March 2024 13:48 (two months ago) link
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
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 31 March 2024 14:00 (two months ago) link
Does "Mary Boone" use the Soul II Soul shufflebeat?
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 31 March 2024 14:17 (two months ago) link
fuck this ephebophile foprock
― Left, Sunday, 31 March 2024 14:35 (two months ago) link
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.
― anza808, Sunday, 31 March 2024 16:15 (two months ago) link
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
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 31 March 2024 16:44 (two months ago) link
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
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 31 March 2024 16:46 (two months ago) link
A Petrusich praises the new album in a lyrics focused review in the New Yorker
― curmudgeon, Monday, 1 April 2024 19:17 (two months ago) link
Yeah surprising that she considers it one of their best… maybe the 6 other tracks are all bangers ! We’ll see Friday
― AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, 2 April 2024 10:08 (two months ago) link
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.
― Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 2 April 2024 10:20 (two months ago) link
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
― ufo, Tuesday, 2 April 2024 10:54 (two months ago) link
Wait, has this album leaked? I'm not seeing in the usual places.
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 2 April 2024 11:50 (two months ago) link
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
― anza808, Tuesday, 2 April 2024 14:31 (two months ago) link
Xpost: it leaked yesterday
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 2 April 2024 14:34 (two months ago) link
Huh. I'm not finding it.
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 2 April 2024 14:38 (two months ago) link
it leaked a few days ago, it's on soulseek
― ufo, Tuesday, 2 April 2024 23:18 (two months ago) link
"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?
― DT, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 01:33 (two months ago) link
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.
― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 02:04 (two months ago) link
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.
― interstellar anthropologist+music philosopher, (Austin), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 02:17 (two months ago) link
^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
― ripersnifle, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 03:42 (two months ago) link
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.
― ufo, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 07:39 (two months ago) link
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).
― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 17:22 (two months ago) link
this is better than mvotc (their worst) at least i will give it that― ufo, Tuesday, April 2, 2024 6:54 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
― 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)
― flopson, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 21:36 (two months ago) link
really have no idea what to say to the argument that MVOTC is their worst album
― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 21:43 (two months ago) link
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.
― mike powell, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 21:52 (two months ago) link
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
― ufo, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 21:57 (two months ago) link
Yeah but mvotc has "step".
― enochroot, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 23:07 (two months ago) link
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.
― interstellar anthropologist+music philosopher, (Austin), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 23:53 (two months ago) link
I gotta ask what does it even mean to be a “new jersey” I’m reading without knowing what that reference is.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 18 April 2024 00:35 (two months ago) link
Every huge artist has their "New Jersey" - a huge event album that ultimately feels a bit hollow & signals a career decline
― Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 18 April 2024 00:46 (two months ago) link
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
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Thursday, 18 April 2024 01:23 (two months ago) link
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?
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Thursday, 18 April 2024 03:10 (two months ago) link
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.
― It was on a accident (hardcore dilettante), Thursday, 18 April 2024 03:59 (two months ago) link
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
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 18 April 2024 04:18 (two months ago) link
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).
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Friday, 26 April 2024 01:14 (one month ago) link
Only God Can Chart Us
― Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 26 April 2024 02:06 (one month ago) link
Vampire Weakened
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 26 April 2024 02:20 (one month ago) link
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...
― Ant1973, Tuesday, 30 April 2024 09:35 (one month ago) link
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?
― birdistheword, Tuesday, 30 April 2024 19:52 (one month ago) link
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 !
― AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, 30 April 2024 20:54 (one month ago) link
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
― Indexed, Wednesday, 1 May 2024 14:20 (one month ago) link
without any evidence or argument to back up my position: my feeling is this would have performed better if they hadn't gone major
― devvvine, Wednesday, 1 May 2024 14:22 (one month ago) link
They did that a long time ago; I reckon over 90% of Vampire Weekend songs are in a major key
― J. Sam, Thursday, 2 May 2024 01:17 (one month ago) link
Get your limited edition VW metrocard:
https://www.amny.com/transit/vampire-weekend-metrocards-available-manhattan/
― o. nate, Monday, 20 May 2024 13:38 (four weeks ago) link
You’d think they’d have one with the album cover.
― Dan Worsley, Monday, 20 May 2024 13:54 (four weeks ago) link
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.
― River Through Howling Ska (Craig D.), Monday, 20 May 2024 14:48 (four weeks ago) link