The songs never really take off (which is a shame with 2 drummers !).
― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, May 10, 2019 3:58 AM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
they really are embracing 80s Grateful Dead!
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 10 May 2019 14:15 (four years ago) link
Eheh, that kind of sets with gazillion guys on stage (2 drummers ! 3 keyboards ! 12 guitarists ! 1 triangle !) remind me of 80s/90s superstars extravaganza lame performances by people like Phil Collins, McCartney, Sting, etc...
― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 10 May 2019 15:11 (four years ago) link
Maybe Ezra is ready for a headband on stage...oh wait !
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/94/a5/dc/94a5dc66e53835babe343bcc922bebde--ezra-koenig-vampire-weekend.jpg
― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 10 May 2019 15:13 (four years ago) link
Wow. To my ears he's never sounded clearer and stronger than in that "Jerusalem, New York, Berlin" clip.
eh. I don't know it sounds very thin and shaky to me, not exactly in key.
― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 10 May 2019 15:15 (four years ago) link
I mean in pitch !
― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 10 May 2019 15:22 (four years ago) link
I thought of the Expanded Heads and it works beautifully.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 10 May 2019 15:23 (four years ago) link
He’s never been a great live singer tbh
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 10 May 2019 15:31 (four years ago) link
I saw them once circa Contra and thought they were not a great live band. (Though I also was not a fan in general, so that didn't help.) But I love the large band in that Kimmel clip and the way they expand the song at the end. Would totally go see that.
For me, whatever constitutes VW on this album and tour is way more interesting than previous incarnations. But since I didn't really like them before, it doesn't surprise me that some people who did don't like this version.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 10 May 2019 15:51 (four years ago) link
Or Fallon clip, I mean. Get my Jimmys mixed up.
Fascinating. I've seen them twice and they were tight as hell, especially performing the Contra material when I expected horrors.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 10 May 2019 15:52 (four years ago) link
saw them headline a festival a couple years after MVOTC and I thought they were surprisingly well-suited to the moment. helps that they have so many tunes.
― i think ur a controp (voodoo chili), Friday, 10 May 2019 16:07 (four years ago) link
they've been doing a version of big blue that's 5 minutes and a version of 2021 that's approaching 7 lol
― ufo, Friday, May 10, 2019 4:33 AM (seventeen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
fuck me up
― k3vin k., Saturday, 11 May 2019 01:52 (four years ago) link
Shout out to Ezra in the headband. Hope we get a Walk of Life cover soon.
― triggercut, Saturday, 11 May 2019 03:08 (four years ago) link
fuck me up― k3vin k.
― k3vin k.
― Una Palooka Dronka (hardcore dilettante), Saturday, 11 May 2019 04:56 (four years ago) link
those fallon performances rule
― k3vin k., Saturday, 11 May 2019 06:11 (four years ago) link
I'm never entirely convinced about the whole band as a live band. I think there was an element of them leaving a lot to Rostam and because they had a "no noodling" rule the arrangements were very tight and dependent on sequenced stuff I think it stifles the feel of a live band.
I really dig those new arrangements and I do think the mix could be somewhat to blame on the Fallon ones, but This Life just doesn't seem to have the same swing as the recording.
I've only ever seen them in a festival setting — and seems like that's the only place I'll ever see them at this rate — but it definitely work at that size where everything's a bit smushier sonically.
― in twelve parts (lamonti), Saturday, 11 May 2019 06:34 (four years ago) link
Jokerman ! Great cover.https://youtu.be/89w8npePkVc
― AlXTC from Paris, Saturday, 11 May 2019 07:36 (four years ago) link
Re: « stranger » being a FM song, otm.I can almost hear Buckingham !
― AlXTC from Paris, Saturday, 11 May 2019 09:19 (four years ago) link
headbands, dang, this is getting to be War on Drugs for post-grads
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 11 May 2019 13:01 (four years ago) link
If you put an “up” in front of tight, that would tally with my experience. What I got from it was a lot of energy but not much motion, if that makes sense. An engine revving in neutral.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Saturday, 11 May 2019 16:23 (four years ago) link
i love this band
― flopson, Saturday, 11 May 2019 17:58 (four years ago) link
i know i shouldn’t care but i don’t care for this little piece of writerly flair in mike powell’s review
Now we have Father of the Bride—a looser, broader album than Modern Vampires, the great sigh after a long holding of breath. There are still moments of conflict, but in general, you get the sense the band is just relieved to have run the gauntlet of their existential doubts and come out relatively unscathed, grateful to be here. A glass of wine? Why not. Make it white, and if you’ve got it, a little ice.
― flopson, Saturday, 11 May 2019 18:45 (four years ago) link
i also disagree with the characterization of modern vampires as anxious and haunted. it sounds incredibly calm and self-assured to me, slightly detached. it’s cool that ppl can hear such different things in it tho :) listening ‘hannah hunt’ feels like an entire movie
― flopson, Saturday, 11 May 2019 18:50 (four years ago) link
I wrote a few things.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 11 May 2019 18:56 (four years ago) link
curious if scottpgwp has come around to this yet. i felt bad for him and his gf reading that post upthread lol. i love nearly all of the album now. no idea if it’s their worst (maybe bottom 2 would be this and contra?) it has their worst songs, but also many of their best, and i love the way ezras songwriting has matured, anyways i can’t even remotely rank their albums just love them all so much
― flopson, Saturday, 11 May 2019 18:57 (four years ago) link
really good writing alfred
It's their worst, but I like it too.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 11 May 2019 19:07 (four years ago) link
thanks!
I've re-listened to all their records over the past week and while I really like this one, it's probably my least favorite. it's also their most sprawling and weird, so maybe this will be their wowee zowee and it'll end up being my favorite.
modern vampires > contra > VW > father of the bride
― k3vin k., Saturday, 11 May 2019 19:08 (four years ago) link
I tried going back and listening to the earlier ones to see if my appreciation of this one would make me like them more, but no such luck. They still seem airless, itchy and precious to me. I like a few individual tracks on each but can't tolerate them in toto, whereas I've had the new one on repeat all week. So ... yvwmmv.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Saturday, 11 May 2019 22:32 (four years ago) link
now that I've had a couple more listens to digest this album, atm I'd put them Contra < VW = FOTB < MVOTC. several highlights, and it's cool to have a sprawling album where the quality is this high. "Sympathy" is the only track that I can't get into
"Bambina" would have been high on my Under 2-minutes ballot had it been released when we did that poll
― Vinnie, Sunday, 12 May 2019 09:16 (four years ago) link
you get the sense the band is just relieved to have run the gauntlet of their existential doubts and come out relatively unscathed, grateful to be here.
This is a.... weird take on an album that has "Harmony Hall" on it
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 12 May 2019 15:07 (four years ago) link
after much deliberation, i've decided i like 'rich man'. that is all.
― i think ur a controp (voodoo chili), Sunday, 12 May 2019 17:05 (four years ago) link
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, May 12, 2019 8:07 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
yeah but all the existential dread is so artfully woven in with the whole headbands and tevas lolz that i think this really is what a lot of people get out of it, and want out of it, sighing about how the world -- or, a world, certainly not everyone's world -- is fucked, over an iced white wine. they really do foreground the easy-breezy aspect of their lives both in their art and its accoutrements, so for people to have that as their prime source of enjoyment for VW doesn't seem very surprising
― Vapor waif (uptown churl), Sunday, 12 May 2019 18:47 (four years ago) link
Or maybe the way it's layered is what people respond to. Not just that it's breezy but there's also a darker undertow. (Speaking of Fleetwood Mac...)
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 12 May 2019 19:25 (four years ago) link
― flopson, Saturday, May 11, 2019 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
The whittled down version I made — 11 songs — I quite like. It still ranks below the other three imo but I enjoy it. I did an experiment and put on just the 7 songs I’d deleted and was like YEAH NOPE.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Tuesday, 14 May 2019 02:23 (four years ago) link
My Mistake and Spring Snow, neither of which are bad songs in isolation, both break up the flow of the and I can't tell where better it would be to put them on the record to make it work.
― in twelve parts (lamonti), Tuesday, 14 May 2019 05:40 (four years ago) link
dang i think Spring Snow is a tier 1 track on the album. and for me a nice resolve before the send off of JNYB
― anza808, Tuesday, 14 May 2019 14:37 (four years ago) link
I didn’t know M. Ronson was on this track.https://youtu.be/FwkrrU2WYKg
― AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, 21 May 2019 23:35 (four years ago) link
I think he has a co-write for the bass line on that.
― in twelve parts (lamonti), Wednesday, 22 May 2019 18:37 (four years ago) link
Oh ok thanks !That video is nice. So LA.
― AlXTC from Paris, Wednesday, 22 May 2019 22:31 (four years ago) link
Ezra was on the Broken Record podcast this week talking about making the new record. I enjoyed it.
― DJI, Thursday, 23 May 2019 00:16 (four years ago) link
loved that, thanks for posting. as a lifelong chromeo stan it’s fun to hear that dave had such an active role on the album
― flopson, Thursday, 23 May 2019 06:31 (four years ago) link
Kinda hilarious that the guy from Chromeo was the one forcing Ezra to write better lyrics.
― DJI, Thursday, 23 May 2019 15:56 (four years ago) link
totally lmao
― flopson, Friday, 24 May 2019 01:25 (four years ago) link
listened to that pod made me appreciate ‘married in a gold rush’
― flopson, Friday, 24 May 2019 01:26 (four years ago) link
that was a really good interview
― in twelve parts (lamonti), Friday, 24 May 2019 06:17 (four years ago) link
It is! But he values "Married in a Gold Rush" rather too highly
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 24 May 2019 10:12 (four years ago) link
Aw I like that song. Catchiest chorus on the record, except maybe JNYB.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 24 May 2019 16:44 (four years ago) link
This albums has only gotten better for me on repeat listenings
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Friday, 24 May 2019 22:08 (four years ago) link