Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride

Every other album in the world(?)

No literally every album every made doesn't use anybody else except the primary musician and/or musicianary body and the idea that a person might come in to work on several tracks over the course of the album is completely unheard of like this album is truly seminal in this regard

I mean "Danielle Haim" is featured on THREE TRACKS this is insane I'll have to do a little wikipedia research but I've never heard of an outside musician working on more than two, AT MOST, tracks on an album, like this is completely unprecedented

^^Steve Lacy knew that.

It’s not unprecedented/insane, but also not super common for “rock bands” or whatever. I don’t fault Alex for noting it / raising the question.

(And to address Alex’s question myself: a roughly analogous-seeming historical example is R.E.M.’s Out of Time, on which Kate Pierson appeared on two album tracks and an outtake. That was a zillion years ago, I’m sure there are more recent examples, but none that spring immediately to mind.)

Well D.Haim os « feat » on 3 tracks + others where she’s on vocals backing apparently (« Harmony Hall » for instance).
You might know zillions of other albums where a super famous bands has another famous singer on that many tracks without it being a duet/collab album but I don’t. Cool for you !

Xpost obviously
Thanks for the R.E.M example !

Dre and Snoop?

Bowie and iggy

There’s a musician named Emmy Lou Harris, for example

ELH is a good one !

Bowie&Iggy too.
Dre&Snoop is a bit different imo.

Sorry I was snippy yesterday I think I was just reading things wrong

I thought it was being implied that Danielle Haim hangs around her boyfriend's studio in hopes of getting featured on Vampire Weekend albums and it seemed fishy and strange and unprecedented and that her repeat features must be the result of some kind of nepotism

I realize in hindsight that was not what was being typed. I don't think it's uncommon though that a known musician might be featured on several tracks across a single album. The only notable thing about it is the "feat." which I imagine is a product of contemporary contract negotiation... "features" carry some kind of monetary value, some kind of percentages that I'm not myself familiar with the specifics of but I'm sure exist

the "feat" thing is a result of the general "hip-hopification" of pop music

i think in this case it’s also a branding mechanism to help emphasize that this is a new era of vampire weekend... having heard the album there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason as to why some songs have a “feat” and some don’t. the first song is almost a duet for instance but on some others — “sunflower” for instance — it mostly seems to be arbitrary. jenny lewis has additional vocals on “2021” but no “feat”. who knows... fgti’s explanation makes sense

I have definitely had conversations with musicians who talked about negotiating "featured performer" status but I don't know what it means or why they'd negotiate it, beyond an assumption that there was some kind of percentage involved, and, of course, exposure.

Ya it gets you more money and a percentage of publishing.

having heard the album

um surely the "feat D Haim" thing is due to the fact that Haim have a large fan base who might be unaware of Vampire Weekend?

Haim's fan base is closer in size to Jenny Lewis' than Vampire Weekend's. Right?

Which is not to say there aren't Haim fans who might be unaware of VW, I'm just calibrating.

I do not think there are many Haim fans who are not aware of the band Vampire Weekend

I have no idea, I just remember my daughters are aware of Haim (because of the T Swift connection) but not of VW.

oh there's an entire half-generation of people who are young enough to know Haim and not VW, I'd say

A friend's 3 year old son listened to nothing but Haim for about a year (on his daily Spotify time slot), I doubt he knows VW ;)

*alerts the authorities*

That's believable but still pretty wow for me

It feels entirely logical and unexceptional that Danielle Haim is on some of these songs but as a cross-promotional strategy it leaves a little to be desired given that no one cared about that last Haim album.

I mean no one feels impelled to do this every time Damon Albarn turns up all over someone else's record.

er, maybe Vampire Weekend used Danielle Haim because they liked her voice?

I think one of the key elements about that is that with Rostam, they lost the person who did all/most of the backing vocals/harmonies.
So it makes sense that they tried to "replace" him and even better if they found someone that they enjoyed working with.
I suppose if he had stayed they might still have maybe a duo project on the album but not that many vocal parts done by a guest.

yeah that makes a lot of sense to me, backing vox/harmonies on first 3 albums are crucial

Ezra mentioned on one of his radio shows something about wanting to have "feat."s on the VW record for the first time on FOTB because they'd never done them before on their records. And like said above there's probably a lot to fill in in Rostam's wake.

All 3 Haims also did significant b-vox on the Dirty Projectors record I think without "feat." credits? A couple of songs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3RRe9Lhraw

this version of 'i think ur a contra' is fantastic

Are people missing Rostam's presence with the new songs or nah?

I think ur a contra is peak dad rock

"dad rock" really ? ugh

Are people missing Rostam's presence with the new songs or nah?

― Josh (phantompenguin)

Not especially. The band has absorbed his lessons about textured, fully inhabited recordings.

dad rock has lost all meaning

I was just kidding.

As a rocking dad, and as the son of a rocking dad, I fully support the reclamation of the pejorative. Dad Rock Pride!

"Jerusalem, New York, Berlin" is the prettiest ballad Koenig's written yet, and D. Haim is excellent on it.

👋 a new Vampire Weekend song, ‘We Belong Together’ is out tomorrow on the album ‘Father of the Bride’, produced by your old pal Rosty Griswald (me)

— Rostam (@matsoR) May 2, 2019

and you can't tell!

can't wait to hear the album ! being seeing pretty positive reviews

been*

this album is a bit weirder than i expected, kinda all over the place (in classic double album fashion i guess). certainly stronger than Modern Vampires but i know i'm fairly alone in thinking that's easily their worst but i doubt i'll end up loving this as much as Contra where every track is a very inventive & near-perfectly crafted pop song.

on first listen "This Life" is the clear highlight but "Flower Moon" and "Stranger" are really nice too and there's a lot to take in.

I love this, I love this

So those 3 songs where Danielle Haim's credited are all duets

is it a flex now to not stream yr album before release day?