Vampire weekend has released a third album called Modern Vampire of The City after their much-recognized Contra and their first self-titled album. Not only has this excited their fans but MVOTC has already hit #1 a little over a week from its official release. So the question is, why? Vampire weekend’s previous albums have always been quite successful, but their name has only slowly grown since Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa made it as #4 on the Rolling Stone’s “100 Best Songs of the Year” in 2007. To add some more context, they have also always provided unique, indie sound influenced by African and World music (which you can easily hear in songs such as Horchata). You can listen to both albums and through Ezra’s vocals and the instrumentation you can hear Vampire Weekend’s rareness, but Modern Vampires of the City is quite different. It seems like their third album is the metaphorical graduation from the Cape-Cod “prep-sters” into classy New Yorkers. From the opening song Obvious Bicycle you can see that they are trying to experiment with their sound because the song mostly consists of strong piano, subtle percussion, and some dreamy back up vocals from Rostam, which contrasts with Contra’s opening song Horchata. Horchata is a prime example of Vampire Weekend’s previous style; more upbeat, with a lot of African percussion and Ezra’s vibrant vocals. Also heard on their previous albums, MVOTC uses lots of harpsichord throughout their songs but this time its not the same playful supplement they used in their other albums, but in Step it creates a classier tone to their music especially when it’s paired up with such beautiful piano and Ezra’s softer vocals. What really attracted me to this album and what really proved that they reached a new level of maturity was the many witty and clever lyrics they had in this album; “You’ve got the luck of a Kennedy” in Diane Young and “Stale conversation deserves but a bread knife” in Step. Right when I heard these different lyrics, they popped out of nowhere and once my mind took sometime to process it, I chuckled. It might be hard enough to understand Ezra’s vocals or lyrics, but he finds the perfect way to squeeze in witty remarks into their enigmatic lyrics. Their iconic songs from their old albums like Cousins or A-Punk along with Horchata, exemplify their old sound: jumpy vocals from Ezra, fast and upbeat rhythm guitar, poppy synths. In MVOTC the strong use of guitar is replaced by heavy piano, Ezra’s voice is deeper and darker, and you can hear less influence from other cultures but a developed new sound of their own kind. If you have fallen in love with their old music, you might be disappointed, but if you are open to a deeper, more developed Vampire Weekend then you are in for a pleasant surprise.
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