When Vampire Weekend released their first album in 2008, it served as a very belated musical awakening to me. After spending six months stranded on a little island on Vanuatu listening to nothing but dusty old men singing in tongues about Jesus, you can understand how hearing the fresh, preppy boisterousness and vivacity behind VW set something in me on fire.
Like many the many scorched and singed around me, I let this fire burn at its discretion, buying Vampire Weekend albums (yes, with money!), seeing them tour, and falling helplessly in lust with lead singer, Ezra Koenig .
Our affections for the New York lads may have since smouldered out, given the three year hiatus they took, but these two hot new tracks they have thrown our way may serve as just enough kindling to reignite what was once quite an almighty blaze. (I promise I’ll stop talking in fire metaphors now)
‘ Steps ’ seems like a logical release for weaning Vampire Weekend weenies back into their groove. It’s whimsical, minimal, synthesised college-dorm-corridor indie rock branded by Vampire Weekend’s notoriously cryptic lyrics and computer game hooks. If anything, it seeps nostalgia for a not-so-distant time and relief from a not-so-fully-fulfilled musical void.
Unlike the aforementioned track, ‘ Diane Young ‘ would have been very awkwardly misplaced in either of their released albums. The audio-technological experimentation on this number reveals a layer of the Vampire Weekend skin that we had yet to see in their previous work. This one is musically muddier, vocally grittier, snail-stomping, puddle-jumping indie pop-rock. Diane Young has the same high voltage energy we are accustomed to with VW, but implies that their trajectory may have moved slightly towards a new musical horizon.
In summary, it took me about three hours to listen to these tracks in full due to an internet connection worse than 1995 dial-up, but it was well worth it. The new album, ‘ Modern Vampires of the City’ is due to drop around the 7 th of May. Thanks for coming back for us, guys – we always knew you would.
WORDS BY Alison Erlanger
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