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Review: Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City

Rating: 9.5

A year and a half after Drake released the phenomenal Take Care, we finally get another brilliant album. If you don't already know, Vampire Weekend are a group of four Columbia grads who got famous making the follow-up to Graceland that Paul Simon never got around to. (In less obscure terms, they made joyous, literate, moderately complex music with a clear African influence.)

Here, on their third album, they've continued to move away from those roots and expand their sonic palette to great results. The drums maintain the simple, joyous bounce they've always had, but the instrumentation layered on top is now much more varied and emotive.

The band still has a tendency to shoot for the mind rather than the heart. A lot of times, they will create something interesting and pretty without zeroing in on a clear emotional goal (ex. the obnoxious background vocals on the chorus of "Ya Hey").  However, on songs like "Don't Lie" and "Hannah Hunt," they have managed, for the first time in their career, to make music that is genuinely affecting.

The album is pretty front loaded. However, on the whole, they have crafted, by a good margin, their best album yet.

Key Tracks: Don't Lie Step, Unbelievers, Diane Young

Track-by-Track Rating:
  1. Obvious Bicycle - 7.0
  2. Unbelievers - 9.0
  3. Step - 9.5
  4. Diane Young - 9.0
  5. Don't Lie - 10.0
  6. Hannah Hunt - 9.5
  7. Everlasting Arms - 8.0
  8. Finger Back - 8.0
  9. Worship You - 8.0
  10. Ya Hey - 7.5
  11. Hudson - 7.5
  12. Young Lion -6.0
For comparison, ratings for their previous albums and also Paul Simon's Graceland:

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend - 8.9
Key Tracks: Oxford Comma, A-Punk

Vampire Weekend - Contra - 9.0
Key Tracks: Giving Up the Gun, Holiday, Taxi Cab

Paul Simon - Graceland - 10.1
Key Tracks: The Boy in the Bubble, You Can Call Me Al, Graceland

Rating Key:
11.0 - Greatest of All Time Contender
10.5 - Flawless
10.0 - Phenomenal
9.5 - Brilliant
9.0 - Great
8.5 - Very Good
8.0 - Good
7.5 - Solid
7.0 - Decent
6.5 - Passable
6.0 - Mediocre
5.5 - Poor
5.0 - Bad
4.5 - Abysmal

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