Upcoming...Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City

    Vampire Weekend has made a fairly concerted effort to distance themselves from their previous two albums, in terms of sound, with this their third studio release, Modern Vampires of the City, which delayed its release from May 6th to May 14, 2013 through XL Recordings. True Vampire Weekend die-hards shouldn't be too disappointed, however, after listening through once to get my initial impressions--while continuing to listen as I write. They are definitely trying some new things, and lean towards a minimal amount of noise, sparseness, on some of the tracks, while others are quite busy. That is what we've come to expect from Vampire Weekend, though, no matter what their sound is; they create a good balance between the upbeat and the laid back chill songs.
    Since their last release, Contra (2010), the members of Vampire Weekend have indeed been busy with other projects and took their time producing and recording when they did finally come back together to complete work on Modern Vampires of the City. Lead singer/guitarist, Ezra Keonig, moved to L.A. (from Brooklyn) for four months to try out the Hollywood atmosphere and collaborated with DJ electronica group, Major Lazer. Backup singer/guitarist, Rostam Batmanglij, did a little solo work and produced for hip-hop arists Das Racist. Already you can see how eclectic this group is. Dummer/percussionist, Chris Tomson, seems the only band member who didn't pursue anything in particular; while their bassist, Chris Baio, did some DJ-ing and scored the film Somebody Up There Likes Me. Modern Vampires of the City saw its inception while on the Contra tours, during sound checks. Eventually, after everyone took their respective breaks, the group came back together and spent time in a variety of recording studios (including Martha's Vineyard?), hiring an outside producer for the first time, former lead singer of the ska-punk band The Hippos, Ariel Rechtshaid (who is known for producing for Usher, Charlie XCX, The Plain White T's and their #1 Platinum selling, grammy nominated single "Hey There Delilah"; and others).
    Any material that Vampire Weekend felt sounded too much like their previous albums was thrown out and they would start fresh--apparently they didn't like the criticism and following that comes from two certified Gold albums, along with their Grammy Award winning Contra, for best Alternative Music Album. They also felt a lot of backlash against their Columbia University snobbishly wealthy rise in the ranks of the indie music scene (to paraphrase, not quote), along with allegations that they are at the forefront of creating a new music scene in Brooklyn along with bands like Yeasayers and Animal Collective (two bands I would fain compare to Vampire Weekend, sorry you're both overrated and second rate!). Instead, Vampire Weekend wanted to remind everyone how diverse they are and that they don't fit into any social norms. But, hey isn't that also what everyone always tries to do and by doing so end up fitting into some sort of social norm? It is honestly almost completely inescapable these days. But, I think this is also what the album cover and title is about: Modern Vampires of the City. The photo was take by Neal Boenzi in 1966 on the smoggiest day in New York history, on which 169 confirmed cases of smog related death were recorded. Basically, our efforts to fit in or be cutting edge are not always as grand and worthwile as the critics [or ourselves] make them out to be.
    Vampire Weekend experimented a lot on this album, with filters and pitch shifting and plugging their guitars into different amps and whatever. A lot of techincal stuff I don't pretend to understand, though I acknowledge it is cool and makes a complete difference in the sound they've come out with here. I just love Baroque Pop and wish they would stick mainly to that, but the days of bands not altering their sound completely and painstakingly record to record may be gone completely--at least after a debut and sophomore, then everyone it seems tries to conform to something.
   Well, I'll leave you with this, I hope you take time to listen to the whole album, I believe there is a stream on iTunes, here. I'm continually behind the ball these days with actual work and wedding preperations as opposed to part-time work that barely consumes my time and left me with lots of free time to write my blog. My favorite song, so far, is "Worship You", it has fun upbeat drumming and almost something like yodeling, but not really. I also like the next song, "Ya Hey", which is more Afro-Beat and has a nice piano countermelody. Over under the 'Monthly Sample Tracks', take time to at least enjoy the single, "Diane Young", linked from the BIRP! April 2013 playlist.