Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride

This felt overlong to me and simultaneously overworked and unfinished. Would probably benefit from having a third of the tracks culled I guess.

Not sure about overlong (only four of the songs get past the four minute mark and half of them are less than three) but could definitely be streamlined a bit.

I simultaneously like a baggy old monster and think all albums should be shorter so am thinking both right now (happy as is & should be filleted). I'm certainly transfixed by how beautiful it sounds.

actually i'm not quite sure what to make of all the D. Haim duets either. they're all country-influenced but end up in this weird territory where they just feel slightly off. it's also weird to hear Ezra singing songs that are so direct and sincere in emotion to the point of feeling a bit corny, even if they're in character.

the album length is in this awkward spot where it's slightly long for a single album but quite short as far as sprawling all-over-the-place double albums go so maybe they should have committed a little stronger to one or the other?

I have a problem with « hold you now » because it uses a zimmer sample that’s overused in a cheesy tv ad here... obviously it’s not VW’s fault !

the dullest songs insist on a rote happiness: "We Belong Together," "Married in a Gold Rush," "Rich Man" (I'm still figuring out that one).

The Keats/Yeats couplet is abysmal for someone with Koenig's acquaintance with college syllabi. I mean, even Morrissey didn't pair them this dumbly.

not feeling the duets much myself on first listen

i wonder if she is doing any tour dates with them .

she said in an interview they haven't made plans for that yet but if they happen to be in the same place at the same time id think it's pretty possible

this is good, the production is astonishing, but... boring complaint, but it’s too long. i might change my mind as i get more familiar with it but the effect of all these vampire weekendy vampire weekend songs stacked on top of each other for an hour is... monotonous. i also find it very strange that i don’t like any of the danielle haim songs

I was ready to defend them all at this time yesterday; now their facility irritates me.

and weirdly this monotonous pacing makes the extreme stylistic diversions (“sympathy”) exhausting

Echoing all the Flower Moon love

Gonna take a yeeeeeeeeear

I’ve been bracing myself for this album for years now. I love all of their other records and have been expecting this one to be a letdown—Rostam leaving, the long delay, the announcement that it would be a double, “Harmony Hall” which I disliked, the album art... After “Harmony Hall” I purposefully avoided the other singles just so I could try to engage with the album on its own terms.

Anyway, I’m on my first play through now. This is my “yucky listen” - just trying to hold off any opinions and do my best to shake off all the bias and expectations as much as I can. Maybe that’s working as I was really gritting my teeth from the first track through “This Life” but it’s starting to even out a little now.

[edit but here comes another Haim duet I’m only fond of]

On the other hand my wife does not enjoy suffering like I do. She just texted me after one listen: “they’re dead to me.”

how does the pacing compare to MVOTC? it's only 15 minutes longer, but with shorter & breezier songs I imagine it might flow better? I love MVOTC but it has a lot of relatively long songs, and some dry ones bookending it. haven't had a chance to listen to FOTB, honestly forgot it came out today, but looking forward to it.

It doesn't feel exhausting because the melodies and harmonies are intricate enough to remember and savor at two minute. Sometimes they're too bright ("We Belong Together").

Also: Koenig claiming writing or co-writing credit on every track. Guess VW has given up the fiction of a democracy.

were the first three records credited to the band? I always assumed it was a Lennon/McCartney situation

I had to go and get two tyres sorted and all I've been humming to myself - the residue of listening to this all morning - is Paul Young's version of Love of the Common People and that bastard Jona Lewie Christmas song.

were the first three records credited to the band? I always assumed it was a Lennon/McCartney situation

― flappy bird, Friday, May 3, 2019

The band credited with music, Koenig with lyrics on first two.

“stranger” is absolutely amazing

if there is a Pazz & Jop poll this year, this album will win it

I spent a minute of 'Hold You Know' thinking 'ugh, country', and then Ezra said 'Alright' and it sounded like he just straight up hit the sample button. Incredible moment. Throughout the whole album, the arrangements are absolutely amazing, on another level of everything they've ever done - and they've always been great at arrangements. But I feel like this time it's like the entire world is at the tip of Ezra's finger, and he just summons whatever he wants when he needs something to underscore what he is saying. It's a crazy feeling.

The only song I kinda don't get at all is My Mistake, and even there I think it's quite funny the way it leads into Sympathy.

Some cool behind the scene stuff in Rostam’s story https://instagram.com/matsor?utm_source=ig_profile_share&igshid=3dixolg6z7np

It's not really country, it's "country," or "Kacey Musgraves"

haha "Harmony Hall" to swipe from Happy Mondays

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CQLAhNlbfQ

I have never been the biggest fan -- I like some songs and I've always thought Ezra's a talented dude, but the band as a whole kind of put me off. But this one is clicking for me -- a little mellower, I guess, plus it's not as rhythmically grating as I've found them before. (They're number one on my list of "Bands I would like better with a good drummer.") But if it's a VW album that people who aren't VW fans like, then maybe VW fans won't dig it as much.

XP...which was taken from John Congos...

Um, the rhythms has probably always been my favourite part of VW? Though admittedly less on MVOTC

xpost surely you mean john Kongos

also tipsy otm i think i like this but i listened to the others this week and i didn't really like this band before

strong john prine/iris dement vibe on d.haim duets

yah, in a good way. I would be down for a whole Ezra/Danielle album.

strong john prine/iris dement vibe on d.haim duets

― tonga,

Yeah, it sounds like they're aiming for "In Spite of Ourselves" on "We Belong Together."

I wish it'd been a Rickie Lee Jones cover.

Um, the rhythms has probably always been my favourite part of VW? Though admittedly less on MVOTC

To each their own. I think Ezra's a good rhythm guitarist, but the actual rhythm section of the band -- drums in particular -- has always been the achilles heel for me. (Seeing them live had the effect of confirming rather than dissipating this for me.)

i wish Bambina was twice as long

To each their own. I think Ezra's a good rhythm guitarist, but the actual rhythm section of the band -- drums in particular -- has always been the achilles heel for me. (Seeing them live had the effect of confirming rather than dissipating this for me.)

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), 3. maj 2019 20:54 (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I agree it's always felt rickety, especially when I saw them live as well, but the rhythms they are trying to play are so much more inventive than pretty much any other indie band this side of Dirty Projectors.

Love the album so far.

Curious about the choices made for the singles that were released ahead of time. Would you guys have made the same decisions on prerelease singles?

This album is very bland.

you're bland

Something this album gets right in a way the other ones maybe didn’t is that the melodies are industrial strength but this time there’s a certain lightness of touch that keeps the whole from being overbearing. (Which might help explain why I’ve never rated this band too too highly, in terms of year end lists and such, in the past - despite the fact that I do like them a lot.)

Because of the new album release the local station that plays this stuff is playing more from them. "Unbelievers" popped up and I forgot a) it existed (I've never really listened to VW at home) and b) how much I like it.

VW is very bland in general

I think this album at least there are leaning in to a 1990 triple-A radio station format vibe

I was hoping this album was going to lean hard into "we're having a baggy revival whether you like it or not" but large chunks of it feel like they landed on "you know, Jim Croce is really kind of nice"

True story: I just found out that Jim Croce is buried maybe two plots over from my dad!

girl, if you don’t know by now... ;)

Rastam and Ezra
Founded a band
The music they made
Was just unbearably bland.
Rastam went solo
Ezra went on
But the album he finished
Was unbearably long.