Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride

That hook should be annoying as hell but I love it

It took me a while to get into VW because I kept reading about their innovative style but that always seemed overstated. I think this band's strength is more in writing very memorable hooks and lyrics

graceland though was mostly influenced by south african music while iirc the african music vampire weekend have drawn from is mostly from west and central africa.

I don't really think it's even this thought out. The Ezra quote about African stuff I saw back when was “The minute our band started, we looked to any kind of music that used rock instruments, but didn’t use them in the same old rock way. And I think African music is probably the best example of that.” So I don't think it was a specific act or region he was aiming to replicate so much as simply an unfashionably bright, super clean guitar sound totally removed from power chords and distortion and stuff. A la (generally speaking) his other big influence Johnny Marr, whose occasional African-isms were, as far as I've read, totally incidental (that is, "This Charming Man," as "African" as it sounds, was written before Johnny Marr had much of any idea about African music at all).

I could be wrong, though, maybe Ezra is like some Awesome Tapes from Africa savant or something. Obviously some of it, via Paul Simon or no, was totally intentional, I just don't know how specific.

Most classics have flaws, though, including the first three VW albums

I don't think anyone especially wanted to sound like West African music because it was West African, but they gravitated to the sounds of West African music more than South African. Although a song like White Sky does seem like a Graceland rip to me.

“It’s very meaningful to me, and it always hurt my feelings when people would say that Vampire Weekend’s lyrics were nonsense. They’re not nonsense. They’re impressionistic."

"I’ve always been mildly offended when people would say Vampire Weekend lyrics are nonsense, because they mean something."

Who says their lyrics are meaningless? Was that a typical criticism? I would have thought it was fairly apparent that the lyrics are laden with all sorts of references and codes.

In re the African influences and the new album, it made sense to me when I realized "Rich Man" is built on an S.E. Rogie sample, because Rogie incorporated country music from the start (big Jimmie Rodgers fan). So a palm wine/countrypolitan album is a natural progression.

took three attempts to make it to the end of this

the attempts at directness on side four are interesting but not hugely diverting. 'jerusalem new york berlin' is a billy bragg song.

yo this is pretty good though

Generally speaking, happiness doesn’t make for great art; at the very least, it isn’t as combustible as misery, desire, or any other feeling rooted in what we lack rather than what we have. Listening to Father of the Bride, I hear songs of contentment sung by people who have tended to feel agitated, songs of belonging by people who have tended to feel as though they don’t belong. I miss the restlessness of Contra, the grandeur of Modern Vampires, the way the band used to sound anxious and self-examining about their privilege but now seem oblivious. Still, it takes a certain kind of bravery to feel the weight of lightness, to admit that things are okay.

via pitchfork. generally otm. very against the grain of "the times" but that's why i think i like this album so much.

that’s a great excerpt. I’ll have to read that

I fundamentally disagree with this thesis and think it's an incredibly limited/adolescent take on what makes Great Art.

at some level though, don't you find it reassuring/heartwarming that, in 2019, pitchfork is still making these kinds of audacious generalizations? the freshman year of college that never ends

I disagree too.

I don't really think the album is entirely about contentment - there's some for sure but also a lot of dread and anxiety about climate change, rising white supremacism etc.

harmony hall is literally about discontent-- even opens by saying it's winter now

mike rly was a big part of my freshman year of college tho

"All I do is lose, baby/ All I want's to win" is not exactly a statement of contentment. Lots of other lines that refute that read of the album, but I understand the impulse of the review. The album feels sunny even when it's more complicated than that.

happiness doesn’t make for great art

can’t believe this made it into review copy in 2019 but i guess i’ve had no evidence we aren’t going to talk about the same things forever

fwiw I don’t really agree with that statement either

fwiw i like the rest of that review very much

yeah its good and this album is good

There's the slightest hint of Thom Yorke (good!) and Billie Joe Armstrong (less good)

" the way the band used to sound anxious and self-examining about their privilege but now seem oblivious."

I dunno, I've read This Life to be almost entirely about examining your privilege. I think it's a tough subject to tackle in a song without coming across as cringeworthy and self-aggrandising, but they do it really well here. Feeling as though you're immune to the "pain/rain", "crumbling dreams", "the hate waiting at the gate" etc. cheating through this life and all its suffering.

yeah, "This Life" is if anything -- at last -- the "You Can Call Me All" that the band's detractors have expected from them: examining your privilege, etc.

Also, Unbearably White hasn't been discussed much in here, but it's one of my favourites from this record. Beautiful instrumentation, and I love Ezra's little yOohoOOOs over the outro, and the way he sings "'iz hard on the body....iz hard on the mind" in the chorus.

thought this was fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlUV6TXwKEI

So for those of us who think it's great but a bit too long, which tracks would you cut?

I'd cut "My Mistake" and the Steve Lacy tracks.

OK ... Ezra's blinking style ... twi quick ones, every time. Is this common? I have never seen this before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkPWqnTWj38

Was it Borges what said 'happiness does not need to be transformed; happiness is its own end'? I get that.

I keep hearing We Belong Together. I think you'd have to be pretty tin-eared to not realise the Keats and Yeats line is dreadful (notice he gave it away) but that's clearly a choice. And it's Love of Common People all the way (in a good way).

(Borges did also say 'I have committed the worst sin a man can commit: I have not been happy' so there is that.)

So after listening to this a lot over the weekend, it's very good (and I still find it very easy to listen to and to absorb for a double album).
Basically I like all the songs, more or less (except "sunflowers" and maybe "how long?" which is a bit boring).
That said it may lack some REALLY great songs/deep cuts.
So far, my favourites, besides the singles, are "rich man", "flower moon" and "jerusalem". two of the duets are also fun ("gold rush" and "we belong together" even though it IS silly !).
About the D. Haim tracks (she's on 9 tracks in total, I think), the only problem is that their voices don't particularly go/blend well together. Not enough contrast and differences in textures and personalities, imo.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/vampire-weekend/2019/webster-hall-new-york-ny-6390fe03.html

This setlist though.

That's a LOOOONG concert !

it was an all day thing with the sets spread across 7 hours apparently, kinda ridiculous lol. looks like they played nearly their entire discography

Man, "Everywhere" is really continuing to be an u&k text for millennial bands, huh?

u&k ?

vw have been covering it since 2008 iirc

"Urgent & Key"

Also didn't know they'd been covering it that long.

oh ok thanks !

i think its a huge success insofar as everyone having really different favorites. my mistake and spring snow are getting almost no love, but those are easily two i love most.

Oh I like "my mistake" ! It has a very cool oldies harmonic structure.

Keats and Yeats thing is a joke of two things that should go together (poets) and look like they should rhyme but don't.

The whole new episode of Time Crisis is him chatting bits about the album with Jake Longstreth and Ariel Rechtshaid while playing it back in sequence.

My Mistake is nice on its own, but it brings the flow of the album to a grinding halt imo

Keats and Yeats thing is a joke of two things that should go together (poets) and look like they should rhyme but don't.

Yeah, to me it's the same kind of playful song as Gershwin's "Let's call the whole thing off".

also a ref to the Smiths' "Cemetery Gates."

Still clangs.

i haven't given this enough plays to really absorb all of its parts yet, but, my initial feelings are not good.

this is exactly the kind of music that usually gets right to me: witty, canny, layered, bright, referential, colorful, accomplished, winsome, charming, self-aware, subtle hints of gloom... but holy cow am i not in the mood for this shit right now. thanks guys great record here's your A+ now fuck off, is how i break it down to an extent

hi, goole!

the new Pure Bathing Culture record is shockingly terrific and pfork dismissed it so i'm in a bad mood about indie tentpole releases at the moment!!

and, hi!

had this playing in one earbud just now and it was sort of blending into the background until "My Mistake" comes on. After starting it over with both earphones it was quite different in isolation and pretty cool.