Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride

Ah, I just went back to it yesterday after a few months.
Still good but I wasn't really in the mood for it so finally I went back to MVOTC instead.
For me it would be MVOTC/VW first, depending on the mood I'm in (moody or jolly) then FOTB then Contra.

I think it’s probably my least favorite of their records but it has some joints. J/NY/B probably their best closer

i’d agree with that. def their worst record

it's a lot better than mvotc which is easily their worst

not the biggest fan but really dig this life

Yeah, "J/NY/B" and "This Life" (and maybe "Married in a Gold Rush") are the best songs on this one and among their best work.

There's a really annoying song by probably Maroon 5 on the radio that plays on Pachelbel but if it had been done by VW I'd probably like it

I'm a fan of the intro track on this. Sounds like dude is playing out in the park playing along to one of those chord books or Ultimate Guitar Tab and having to turn the page every so often.

a really annoying song by probably Maroon 5 on the radio that plays on Pachelbel

Please someone link to this :)

Maroon 5 - memories

https://youtu.be/SlPhMPnQ58k

Supposedly dedicated to their manager who died last year, yet those doot doots make it sound like they’re not really sad about it.

Still sounds like a solo Ezra record to me, which shouldn’t be a problem at all but mostly I just prefer that VW//Contra//Modern Vampires vibe.

What song is the bassline from How Long referencing? It's really bugging me

― frame casual (dog latin), Wednesday, May 8, 2019 4:43 PM (six months ago) bookmarkflaglink

it kinda kinda sounds like 'where is my mind?'

― i think ur a controp (voodoo chili), Wednesday, May 8, 2019 4:49 PM (six months ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm hearing some sort of early-2000s hip hop tune from the Dre/Eminem/D12 era??

― frame casual (dog latin), Wednesday, May 8, 2019 4:57 PM (six months ago) bookmarkflaglink

It was 'I'm Back' by Eminem I think

there’s good stuff on here but my least fav of theirs pretty easily

For sure. Their least essential album, but it's a better album than when David Byrne turned TH albums into solo projects.

Guess who.

Composer-vocalist Ezra Koenig (age 35) takes the idea of emotional reparation in “Sympathy” from one of Britain’s great post-punk bands, New Order, who revolutionized politicized dance pop in the Eighties and Nineties (with such devout political recordings as “Temptation,” “True Faith,” and “Technique”). Here, Vampire Weekend echoes New Order’s versatility, rhythmic ingenuity, and its romantic-social undercurrent. It’s what, in less fragmented times, was once called “folk music” but now for an era when the term “folk” needs to be redefined.

That endeavor gives the 58-minute Father of the Bride its surprise, excitement, and grandeur. Over 18 tracks, Koenig and company work through the sophistication that defeats us, experimenting with assorted song styles — plus high-information worldliness — without losing the insouciance of their eponymous 2007 debut. Initially known for their preppy eclecticism, Vampire Weekend expands into miscellany as never before. The group’s signature audacious Afropop (a cheeky, bright, guitar-based cross-culturalism) blends into melodies that are closer to home — and so it seems quirky to audiences who are unaccustomed to what used to be classic and traditional.

Haha I guessed that but figured “nah, he’s a movie critic.”

This is an exceptional album you guys.

exceptionally long

it's not even that long

i agree that it's exceptional, though my experience with it after the first couple months has been through repeating my favorite tracks and re-listening to the livestream of the MSG show that I attended (the show was exceptionally long, it's true)

"This Life" is among their best. I get euphoric listening to it, and since May I've walked around in public spaces singing Danielle Haim's CHEATIN' ON CHEATIN' ON ME

all the Haim duets are great. I really came round to the opening track

when I cut out

10. "My Mistake"
11. "Sympathy"
12. "Sunflower" (featuring Steve Lacy)
13. "Flower Moon" (featuring Steve Lacy)

I enjoy the album more

it is long. but it's consistent. I don't think there are many dull or insubstantial moments. it's packed full of melodies, stuffed with ideas, and it does everything with gusto

aside from a few tracks, the arrangements let this album down imo

what do you not like about them, just out of interest?

the album feels both bloated with songs and not fully-formed bc the arrangements feel like temporary sketches, essentially. hard to point to a single thing, there's a rickety and empty quality that carries through, maybe most exemplified by "rich man," or how for instance i can sorta tell that "jerusalem, new york, berlin" is a well-written song but it just sits in place. i get people finding this charming but it's what makes it pale in comparison to the other vw records for me

"bambina" and "this life" are fuckin sick though

the songs on here were definitely created with the live show in mind. they're less "composed," arranged on record with the intent give the band more room to breathe in a live setting--J,NY,B is a good example. the negative space allows the players to play in a way that they're not beholden to playing a line of melody that the audience knows by heart. i agree, brad, that the strength in composition isn't as present in the arrangements in these songs (this was what rostam most notably brought to the table), but i think the bones of the songs on this one are very, very strong and it allows them to get away with sparser arrangements.

i agree about rich man. it goes nowhere (tho i do like that ukulele figure enough that the repetition doesn't drive me mad).

OH CHRIST

put me in the 'it's charming' camp. I love the arrangements. this album makes their earlier stuff feel sophomoric by comparison

like, I'm starting to come round to the idea that everything on this album has been thought-through and some of the more jarring choices are very deliberate (even down to the front cover)

re: their earlier stuff feeling at all sophomoric compared to this record: can't follow you there, the arrangements on contra are like dense and intricate music boxes of detail and are the reason it's one of my favorite records of the last decade

I'm the last person to praise Contra as a headphone album but there it is

could write a paragraph just about the number of amazing things going on in "run" alone

song is like a fucking dub remix of itself

in a sense it plays as a vaporwave record yet destroys the genre

top 5 vw songs would be "this life" and whatever 4 songs are my favourites from contra at the moment

Uh oh, I never liked this band, but I started listening to Time Crisis and I'm getting Stockholm syndrome, or rather I started liking this particular album after listening to the ep that goes through all the songs.

I'm into the more stripped-down Americana/Tiny Desk vibe + interesting production touches, not so much the bigger pop songs. I'll have to make my playlist version of the record since it seems like that's the thing to do.

Can one listen to Time Crisis without an Apple Music sun? Cause that track-by-track pod sounds relevant to my interests

I found it on Google podcasts, but I think someone is 'unofficially' uploading them

Uh oh, I never liked this band, but I started listening to Time Crisis and I'm getting Stockholm syndrome, or rather I started liking this particular album after listening to the ep that goes through all the songs.

I'm almost with you. i never liked this band and now i kind of want to like them because i like ezra from listening to this podcast

(i guess it's technically not a podcast)

somebody uploads time crisis to mediafire (lol) on this tumblr: https://timecrisis-withezrakoenig.tumblr.com/

Glad it's not just me, lol. Ok here is my Sunday morning version of this record, which went over pretty well with my partner who also never liked VW:

Hold You Now
Harmony Hall
Big Blue
How Long
Unbearably White
Rich Man
Married in a Gold Rush
My Mistake
2021
Spring Snow
Jerusalem, NY, Berlin

Every double album is too long: I treat this as a kind of miscellany.

(But I definitely wouldn't include My Mistake or Spring Snow on my single disc cut!)

I probably wouldn't either, and I would include Stranger. Maybe it's sappy, but to me it's really effectively sappy in a "This Must Be the Place" kind of way.

Oh my playlist wasn't meant to be a best-of, just the ones that are appropriate for sipping coffee and doing crosswords on a Sunday morning without ruining the vibe.

Oh, that makes sense. Maybe I'll try it out next Sunday morning.

this is me firing shots, primarily at dog latin

VW rereleased Father of the Bride and made it even more unbearable pic.twitter.com/nukazHvA6E

— DJP (@djperry1973) February 28, 2020

I'm here what's going on