Skip to main content

Vampire Weekend – Father of the Bride (2019)

Vampire Weekend – Father of the Bride
Image result for vampire weekend father of the brideImage result for ezra koenig 2019
I’m going to get it out of the way, the worst parts of the new Vampire Weekend album by far, are the Danielle Haim songs. I’m not saying it’s her fault, her voice is sweet and slightly sharp if not a bit generic, but for some reason, the first two songs that she sings on are just terrible. Now, these songs are obviously linked, creating the relationship theme that lends Father of the Bride its name. But those first two duets, “Hold You Know” and “Married in a Gold Rush” are two of the cringiest lyrics that have ever appeared on a Vampire Weekend album, at least when delivered the way they are. Most likely this is just due to Danielle Haim, she does not have the same young naiveté that can really sell some of Ezra Koenig’s more benign lyrics. The third duet “We Belong Together” is miles above the other two, most likely due to former Weekender Rostam's production and engineering and this track does have the oomph it needs to elevate itself. Ezra was obviously proud of these songs, but by placing “Hold You Know” as the leadoff track he naturally starts the album off dead on arrival. The choral church flourishes brighten the song a bit but they can only do so much. It’s not until the second song “Harmony Hall” that you really feel that Vampire Weekend energy. The track is urgent and lavish with layered production and a chorus that just keeps getting bigger. It’s a great song, but unfortunately, it's probably the best one here. The album, in general, is just not very strong and although Vampire Weekend has never been known for their consistency, it’s even more disappointing due to its length. At 18 songs and 57 minutes, there’s a lot of fat to trim and there are so many songs here; “Bambina”, “How Long?”, “Rich Man” that have nice melodies but just aren’t fleshed out, songs that seem to just end as if Ezra ran out of time. If these tracks were developed a little more, or maybe even combined into one McCartney-esque Frankenstein, it would certainly tighten up the album and make a more cohesive flow. Of course, there are some songs that probably can’t be salvaged; the aforementioned Danielle Haim contributions, “My Mistake” which is a boring meandering snooze, and especially “Stranger” a limbering little nothing that only wishes it could be a Modern Vampires of the City reject.  These tracks especially feel as if Ezra couldn’t bear to part with anyone else’s contributions, like he was just too nice, and the album suffers for it.
Now, just about everybody has noted how many of these songs pull from the Graceland playbook, and in fact, the cover art is probably most reminiscent of the kind of Live Aid/USA for Africa graphic that accentuates the world music and “unity” of the songs inside. Unfortunately, the album doesn’t live up to any of those comparisons, it’s a bloated, frustrating listen, one with high highs and low lows. It’s easily Vampire Weekend’s worst album and one that easily could’ve been better.
~6.5
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Concert Review: Wilco at The Riviera Theatre, – 3/26/23

Wilco at The Riviera Theatre, – 3/26/23 Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood was once the center of the city’s booming entertainment district. Located at what had initially been the end of the L Train system, The Aragon Ballroom, Green Mill Jazz Club, and long-defunct Uptown Theatre quickly defined the corners of Broadway and Lawrence Avenue as the designated area for Chicagoans to congregate for the arts. As the area’s zeitgeist waivered though, the theatres grew into a weekend oasis of vibrancy amongst an otherwise casual and sleepy north-side neighborhood. Given Wilco’s consistent championing of Chicago’s local institutions, and another Uptown landmark Carol’s Pub in particular, The Rivera Theater seems like exactly the kind of venue for the band to host their latest three-night run and the start of their spring tour. Jeff Tweedy and company know the former movie palace well, playing there many times over the years and even using it as the base for a five-night series of performances b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Buck Meek – Haunted Mountain (2023)

Buck Meek – Haunted Mountain   Big Thief, one of the best and most adept bands of the 21 st century, has done more in six short years than most bands can squeeze out of an entire catalog. Each of their five studio albums has managed to expand their signature homespun charm into exciting, self-contained albums. The sound always moves forward but with distinct detours projecting their country-folk and singer-songwriter tendencies over disparate palates. The band’s prolificity extends to their solo catalog as well, the most notable inclusions naturally coming from lead singer and principal songwriter Adrianne Lenker. But behind her eclipsing generational talent, is guitarist Buck Meek, an artist who could easily shepherd his own headlining band if he needed to. Aside from some early, Big Thief-adjacent work, Meek’s true breakout was with 2021’s Two Saviors , a beautiful, alt-country collection of songs, most of which approached the quality, if not the scale of his mother band’s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fever Ray - Radical Romantics (2023)

Fever Ray – Radical Romantics Karin Dreijer’s debut solo album Fever Ray came out only shortly after Silent Shout , an album that was almost immediately hailed as The Knife’s masterpiece. The inevitable comparisons seeped out, no one was completely ready to accept the more cavernous Fever Ray as any sort of a replacement for the lush maximalism of Dreijer and her brother’s The Knife. Regardless, Dreijer had proved how essential they were to that project and by 2014, the two had disbanded. Fever Ray’s next album Plunge continued Dreijer’s push towards empty space with an angrier and more overtly political edge and simultaneously built Fever Ray into a proper entity in its own right. Radical Romantics is a Fever Ray album in that its fixations swarm around Dreijer, all their proclivities, and all their vulnerabilities. It’s also the closest Fever Ray has ever sounded like The Knife, whether it be the soaring and anthemic “Shiver”, or the pronounced synths ripples on “New Utensi...
Post a Comment
Read more