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When I was studying in New York, I learned very early that the Vampire weekend, whose music adored in high school, was not cool. Too pretentious, too enigmatic, too privileged, too white, they formed a group that no conscience nor any taste could admit to love. These were products of Columbia University, our elite neighborhood neighbor chic, and were reserved for private listening with headphones rather than playlists.
And yet, the last album of the band, The father of the bride, is something different Both meaningful and irresistibly likeable, this is a version of Vampire Weekend that even the jaded kids of NYU can admit to worship. Here, the band avoids the haunting sounds and haunting lyrics of his third album, Modern vampires of the city, and brings back the energetic beats of his debut album – this time with the musical experimentation and self-awareness absent from previous versions.
They immediately confront their reputation on a piece called "Unbearably White". After getting rid of this, they then try to go beyond by addressing deeper themes with odes to change, nature and spirituality.
I can count on the excellence of whites on the one hand, and this includes Stranger Things Season 1, Bruce Springsteen's "I'm on fire" and this new Vampire Weekend album.
– Ira Madison III (@ira) May 3, 2019
In The father of the bride, Vampire Weekend uses its eponymous concern with death and time as an opportunity to meditate on climate change. "Do not lie" of Modern vampires of the city questioned the universal fear of death from an individual's point of view ("I want to know, do you mind? / The weak click of a clock"), but "How Long "on the last album raises a more current question:" How long will we sink to the bottom of the sea? " A line on "Spring Snow" begins with a reference to the Beatles classic, but soon becomes worrisome: "But here's the sun, those old toxic rays." the threat is not the effacement of the consciousness of an individual, but of the whole species. What meaning can we find in life, when "the seasons we had do not mean anything"?
The album enters into philosophical meditations of an unexpected depth on how religions, predating the climate catastrophe, could bring consolation. The lyrics suggest that human industrialization could be the modern equivalent of Eve eating the forbidden fruit. In the chorus of "Harmony Hall", Koenig sings: "And the stone walls of Harmony Hall testify / Anyone worried could never forgive the sight / The wicked snakes in a place that you thought worthy / I do not want to live like that, but I do not want to die. The green snake that runs through the music video of the song and the cartoon snake that forms a spiral on the album cover might be seen as the snake that trapped Eve inside. Eden, otherwise quiet, the first upheaval of paradise that leads us to where we are today. If the connection seems untenable, listen again to "My mistake": "Unconscious of the fall / Unconscious of my destiny / Peace reigned in the valley / I managed to deceive myself.
Despite the emphasis on stupidity and forgetfulness of the man, the optimistic music suggests the possibility of a redemption. The lightest songs are, as Steve Lacy of the Internet says in the introduction to "Sympathy", "not so serious". Koenig takes music from around the world (the similarity of the cover of the album with that of Paul Simon Graceland to be intentional?), from a Melanesian choral song from "Hold You Now" to Haruomi Husono's ambient music – originally played in Muji's stores in the 80s – on "2021". Songs like "Sympathy" and "Jerusualem, New York, Berlin" explain the album's aspirations to the world in terms of peace, finally expanding the scope of the Vampire Weekend's lyrics beyond its previous fixations on the Love, death and grammar.
While a wide range of sounds and the use of autotunes, synthesizers and many samples emphasize the theme of global unity, they are also responsible for some weak spots. "We Belong Together" overflows with love to be disgusting, and "Rich Man" is a low ironic attempt on an otherwise refreshing album. But overall, The father of the bride offers tracks that are repeated in the listener's head, discovering the meaning of each successive listening. It's finally unpretentious, the result of a real wonder in front of the world. It's maybe even – support me here – cool.
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