It Doesn't Suck: "Modern Vampires of the City" Review

Copyright: XL Recordings, Vampire Weekend

Much as my witty title suggests, the new offering from New York-based indie powerhouse, Vampire Weekend, is 100% not bad at all. In fact, it's more than not bad...that ish is DOPE.

Coming off their sophomore effort, Contra (2010), the band had pretty much solidified themselves as one of the definitive popular music acts of the past several years. Contra saw them experiment with their signature blend of quirky indie pop while sticking to a deceivingly light yet actually heavy handed lyrical style (a la themes of "first world guilt", among other things). I've always believed the first two Vampire Weekend albums to be sort of like a first kiss: weird, exciting, evoking and oh so right. Well, if that's the case with Vampire Weekend (2008) and Contra, then Modern Vampires of the City is what happens when the band takes a chance and tries to get a little friskier with the metaphorical kiss...if you catch my drift.

This metaphorical promiscuity is simply my way of describing the extreme experimentation that the band embraced and ran with on Modern Vampires of the City. Not only does the album have a different overall vibe than the previous two (it is much darker lyrically and musically), each song is vastly different than the next. It's evident that the goal of the band was to create an album that is, for all intents and purposes, a step above the previous ones. This step up is what many critics and fans are recognizing as a maturation (which plays all too well in to the "first kiss" metaphor) of the band's sound. Lyrically, Ezra Koenig remains wonderfully stagnant (and I say that in the best way possible), tackling themes of love and mortality better than most any "mainstream indie" lead-man out there and in a way that fully utilizes the band's newfound musical maturity. Look no further than "Unbelievers," which the band began playing on tour as early as July of 2012, for a song that incorporates a new type of musicality and mature lyrics regarding love and death. It's these kind of songs that make Vampire Weekend such a successful indie band. Catchy, refreshing, fun, to-the-point and reminiscent of laying out on your college's quad in the welcome heat of late-spring, that's what Vampire Weekend's music is. Modern Vampires is exactly like that, except now it's a mild, cloudy day. It's still enjoyable, just more akin to the "gray" nature of Modern Vampires (hence the album's sort of bleak cover).

While its known that the band tinkered heavily with the actual recording of the album, trying new methods such as unorthodox pitch shifting (see "Diane Young") and strange yet effective layering of drum tracks (see almost every song), there are also elements of the album in which the astute Vampire Weekend fan will find nods at the same beautiful sounds of the first two albums. The band had stated that they wished to distance themselves completely from their signature sound, even going as far as saying, "Whenever we came up with something familiar sounding, it was rejected." However, when first listening to the second half of the first single, "Diane Young/Step," it is almost too easy to imagine "Step" as snub from the 2008 self-titled. Perhaps it's the elements of baroque pop that just SCREAM Vampire Weekend, but there's just something familiar about the track that's reminiscent of early VW. This, however, is not a bad thing. Because the band went through such lengths to produce a loco-crazy, head-scratching experimental album, this small glint of the old sound is like finding a silver coin in your pot of gold: it's still freaking awesome any way you look at it.

While I believe the album is nearly perfect, it is not without a small flaw. I believe the opening and closing tracks ("Obvious Bicycle" and "Young Lion") are the weakest on the albums. They aren't bad, per say, they are just too in-your-face with their different nature and, personally, I don't like the fact that they're so slow (maybe I'm just a nitpicky jerk, though). They serve their purpose as openers and closers but perhaps a little more energy could have been put into them. I like them, just not as much as I love every other song, so that's not saying much.

Vampire Weekend is a band who sounds completely comfortable with their niche in the musical world. They're just chilling in musical cyberspace like, "Yeah. We're successful as the dickens and we make really good music and aren't really jerks about it at all, so?" They are largely carefree musically yet are no strangers to relatable, beautifully executed lyricism. Safe to say, they've mastered the whole big-time band thing. Modern Vampires of the City is a rip-roaring success with critics and fans alike, already Number 1 on a bunch of those all-powerful music charts in countries all over the world. Look for the band to continue its success in the coming years. If you can, definitely see them on tour this summer. I'm seeing them at the Firefly Music Festival in June and I couldn't be more excited to hear classics and new gems alike.

Final Grade: 9/10

Key Tracks: "Unbelievers," "Diane Young," "Finger Back," "Ya Hey"


It's a strange paradoxical blend of clever lyrics and pop sensibility that allows a band which is, first and foremost, and indie rock band, to be so successful in the mainstream. Vampire Weekend is an example of the good that can be found in popular music today. If you wish to read more on the subject of the state of music today, for example how iTunes killed the "album," check back tomorrow. I might just blow your mind.

¡Adios!

UPDATE: Check out a review of Modern Vampires in our school's newspaper, The Page, by a freshman friend of mine, Nick Smith.