Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City

"Dear congregation,

We are gathered here today to witness the baptism of a new member of our holy family."

A sweaty and stunned looking Ezra Koenig waits just out of view, in the clutches of an eager girl, whose face shimmers like the golden cross around her neck.  She intends to hold him for his assurance, but she might as well be a pair of shackles.  Suddenly his name is called and he's pushed into the spotlight as the audience applauds. 

"Wait!" he cries. 

"Let me think about this for a while."

The priest, Father Paul Simon, nods confidently in agreement and the congregation leaves Ezra to think.

The outcome of this imaginary scene is Modern Vampires of the City; Vampire Weekend's third album.  The group has turned their attention away from Caribbean music, towards more straight-laced indie pop with a slight gospel bent.  It is less flamboyant than their earlier work, but it retains the precociousness and clever lyricism that makes this group so engaging.

Thematically, this album revolves around a doubtful relationship with Christianity, ageing, and death.  Judging by the lyrics in "Obvious Bicycle" and "Unbelievers," it seems like selfishness and distrust mainly keeps Ezra from his faith.  Although he seems cynical, the upbeat and cheery delivery keeps it both relatable and likable. These themes, combined with the slower pace of the album, make it the most thematically focused and mature work Vampire Weekend has done yet.

These more serious topics in the lyrics also reflect a disenchanted feeling in the instrumentation.  It is nowhere near as bright and colourful as the rest of Vampire Weekend's work.  They have eliminated the bongos, steel drums, and even most of the guitars and string sections that used to define them.  In their place they use a lot of ancient sounding keys, and even the occasional choir, but it is definitely sparser.  It gives their music an airy and smoke filled quality, which doesn't always work perfectly.  For instance, the harpsichord in "Step" sounds hazy and frayed, like it's being played in a dusty cathedral.  I hear the same musky acoustics coming off the organs in "Finger Back," "Everlasting Arms," and almost every other time it makes an appearance.  Although it may be a stylistic choice, I still don't like how it sounds.  To me, it muddles the prim and proper, Princeton image that they are still trying to cultivate.  "Diane Young" is the clear exception to this.  The synths and the bass in this track are just so sharp and crisp.  Every time they play, it's like being slapped in the face...in a good way.

This is going to sound awesome!

The last thing I want to point out is Ezra Koenig's voice.  In "Ya Hey" it is unbearably annoying.  It sounds like a character from a kids cartoon targeted at the hyperactive and hard of hearing.  They use some far more endearing effects in "Diane Young" to make it sound like they are inflating and deflating him like some sort of balloon. 

In closing, I don't think that this is Vampire Weekend's best album, but I definitely don't dislike it.  They definitely show some more confidence on slower songs.  It's also great to see that their songwriting can stand out, without the embellishments of the instruments they are used to playing with.  If it weren't for the dirtiness of the production and Ezra Koenig's unpredictable and sometimes shrill voice, this album could have been great, but I think it stops just short of that.

Grizzly Bear - Shields

It took me a long time to appreciate Grizzly Bear's musical style.  My first exposure to their sound was through their amazingly successful album Veckatimest, and for a time I found myself bored with their music.  Eventually one day, while listening to Veckatimest in the tranquil setting  of UVic's library, the quiet beauty of their music hit me.  Their vocal harmonies are complex and haunting, the guitar work is dazzling, and it is all composed with a minute attention to detail that gives their music the dignified beauty of a church hymn.

Grizzly Bear rewards you for the attention you put into them.  Many of the intricacies in their music are not noticeable on the first listen, but the band is easy to appreciate after sitting down and paying close attention to all of the different sounds you will hear.  This density can be missed on a casual listen, but like closely examining the brushstrokes allows you to appreciate the work of a great painter, sitting down with any Grizzly Bear album will reward you with a great experience.

This is all still true for Grizzly Bear's new release Shields.  Even though this new album is altogether more lively than much of their earlier work, they still consistently craft beautiful atmospheres with their meticulous instrumentation.

The opener, and single, "Sleeping Ute" is torrential.  The guitar work soars and crashes with the cymbals and drum rolls, like waves in a storm and the guitar effects they introduce at 2:07 adds a level of gloss to this track that would make Ratatat drool.  The next track "Speak in Rounds" emerges from the sea foam of the opener, and starts out much more relaxed with some beautiful vocals from Daniel Rossen.  Before long though, the pace picks up again and acoustic guitars dominate the landscape.

There are some slower tracks on this album such as "The Hunt," "Adelma," and "What's wrong."  These songs all feature Rossen's voice alone, usually backed by just organs or keys and percussion.  Grizzly Bear can vary its instrumentation quite a bit and still sound very coherent on the album level, and its nice to see that when they use more instruments and take more time they really run wild with it successfully.  A nice balance between their two extremes of serene beauty and energetic brilliance is the 7:00 minute closer, and my favourite track "Sun in Your Eyes."

The density of this album is truly astounding.  Only two of the songs are under four minutes, and of that "Adelma" is just a short, atmospheric, breather between some of the most engaging songs.  The slower songs are well placed, and they give the album a smooth flow without too much down time and without burning you out.  Whereas on Veckatimest, I found that the slow pace made it hard to engage with upon a first listen, this album had me engaged from the moment I pressed play, and I find myself coming back again and again to examine the complexity in more minute detail.