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.

Foxygen - We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic

Hello everyone! we recently just passed 1000 views, which is a big milestone for me.  I am so happy people have been taking the time to read my opinions on music.  Thank you so much.  Why don't we celebrate with an album review. This week I am thinking people might like Autre Ne Veut's Anxiety, but screw you man! I'm a punk at heart, so I'm doing Foxygen's new album, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic (I'll save Anxiety for next week).

Wow that is a mouthful, and I think it really goes a long way to demonstrating the bombastic, sassy energy that this band puts into their music. On this album, they seem far more comfortable settling into some steadier grooves then in their previous LP, Take the Kids off Broadway, but they still come off sounding like the Rolling stones haven't been taking their ADD medication.

"I see a red door and I want it painted black, no blue, no yellow, no lets leave it red, no LETS KNOCK IT DOWN!"

Of course, I would not necessarily count this against them, but I can easily see how their music could seem ridiculous or uncommitted.  The high energy, tempo changes, and strange lyrics don't exactly paint a graceful picture as much as they do a burlesque parody of 70's rock and roll.

However, on this new album, the lyrics are a lot more comprehensible and more personal than on Take the Kids off Broadway.  Like in the song "On Blue Mountain" which seems to detail a fracturing relationship with Christianity.  The control of energy in this song is just fantastic; the tempo changes smoothly a couple times as the bass and organ swell and burst, and Sam France just screams "On blue mountain God will save you" till it sounds like he basically dies of exhaustion.  Another quite personal track on this album is the song "No Destruction," which talks about getting rejected by a girl for being a pot smoking ne'er do well.  The first verse is quite calm, but his depression turns to frustration in the second verse as he comes back to repeat the same phrases in such an angry sarcastic spit.  It's no mystery how he feels.

Rejection, frustration, failure, and fun all seem to be pretty major themes in this album.  Even on the more relaxed elevator, psych-rock single "San Francisco."   Though I was initially put off by the mockingly cheerful melody and the vocalists' disinterested delivery, the chorus of this song is seriously infectious.  The reverb on the female voice makes it sound like it is inside the singer's head, telling him his decisions are o.k. because "She was bored anyway."  The crass attitude of this song also carries over into my favourite track "Oh Yeah" which should have you dancing at least by the time they start singing the hokey pokey in the second verse.  There is also some stellar guitar work hidden in the background.

The whole album is deeply rooted in smart ass sass, but what really makes it alluring for me is that they are able to take a fun attitude to some downtrodden topic matter.  It is teenage angst at its finest, where frustration and anger are motivated by excess energy and boredom, and validated by rock and roll and drugs.  I feel this album also stands against and mocks some of the music we most associate with rebellious youth culture, like it is a recognition of how patronizing it is to have music made specifically to appeal to the youth.  Foxygen's take on rock and roll is full of sass, which can make it sit uncomfortably between homage and parody, but this album is so full of Holden Caulfield likability and youthful exuberance, its hard not to love it.  Stay gold Foxygen.  Stay gold.

Discussion!

• Would you feel like this album could be a parody or an homage to 70's rock and roll?
• Do you enjoy Sam France's vocal delivery? or does his swing from flat monotone to hoarse screaming put you off?
• Is it too sassy to seriously convey some topic material you can relate to?

Let me know in the comments!

Dirty Projectors - Swing lo Magellan

I feel like I need to start this review by saying that I was a very big fan of the Dirty Projectors first major label record "Bitte Orca."  That work was brimming with confidence and although their sound seemed a bit cluttered on songs like "Cannibal Resource" and "Useful Chamber," it was a solid demonstration of guitar playing talent as well as fabulous voice work.  Their sound was delicately constructed, but at the same time it consistently flew off the handle with fiery guitar solos that gave it a very bright and ecstatic feel.  Both the guitar playing and their vocal work seemed to me like the strong points of the Dirty Projector's sound and I was hoping these two elements, in all their bright form, would be the focal point of the band's next release.

"Swing lo Magellan," the Dirty Projector's new album, features both of these elements, but not as strongly or as excitedly as their preceding work.  It takes on a more mature feel, which is not always a bad route, but in this instance I did not find it nearly as engaging.  The work as a whole feels much more calculated, and darker.  Rather than riding triumphantly through the desert, this feels sun baked like a six shooter showdown.  I think overall this change in ambiance is what made me dislike this album more than "Bitte Orca."  I really connected emotionally to the ecstasy they projected, but I just do not feel the same emotions while listening to "Swing lo Magellan."

That being said, there were several songs I really enjoyed.  "About to Die" has some interesting drum work that builds to a very emotive chorus.  The next song "The Gun Has No Trigger" makes the rest of the vocalists sound like a chilling choir of ghosts next to David Longstreth's lead vocals.  This single was actually the song that I liked the most out of the songs that do not bear as much resemblance to their earlier work.  It also epitomizes the change in style that really struck me on this album, if only the rest of the songs matched this one in quality.  "Dance for you" is an another simple and relaxing song that I enjoyed immensely.  The light percussive work allows Longstreth's voice to really ring out as if he is singing to a vast canyon. 

The back half of the album had several songs that I enjoyed due to their similarity to their old style.  "The Socialites" really shows Amber Coffman's voice well.  It lets her bring forth great emotion that sounds comforting like a lullaby and on a side note, in this song she sounds very similar to Marceline from Adventure Time.  "Unto Caesar" has a some guitar parts that remind me a lot of "The Bride" from "Bitte Orca" and the speaking interludes add some hilarious moments to the song.

All in all, with the exception of "Dance for You" and "The Gun Has No Trigger," I found my favourites to be the songs that were closest to their original style.  The slower and drained feeling of a lot of these songs does not fill me with the same exuberance that their first work did, and without any other elements than the guitar and voice to fall back on, it seemed ineffectual and boring all the way from "Swing lo Magellen" to "See What SheSeeing."