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''Modern Vampires of the City'' received almost universally positive reviews from music critics. At [[Metacritic]], which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews and ratings from mainstream critics, the album received a metascore of 82, based on 18 reviews.<ref name=MC>{{cite web|url=http://www.metacritic.com/music/modern-vampires-of-the-city/vampire-weekend/critic-reviews|title=Critic Reviews for Modern Vampires of the City|author=Metacritic|date=May 14, 2013|publisher=[[CBS Interactive]]|accessdate=May 9, 2013May 9, 2013}}</ref> British publication ''[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]'' also wrote highly, stating, "A more enjoyable pairing of words and music this year is hard to imagine."<ref name=uncut>{{cite journal | date = June 2013| title =Review: ''Modern Vampires of the City''| journal = [[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]|| page = 63| publisher = [[IPC Media]]| issn =1368-0722}}</ref>
''Modern Vampires of the City'' received almost universally positive reviews from music critics. At [[Metacritic]], which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews and ratings from mainstream critics, the album received a metascore of 82, based on 18 reviews.<ref name=MC>{{cite web|url=http://www.metacritic.com/music/modern-vampires-of-the-city/vampire-weekend/critic-reviews|title=Critic Reviews for Modern Vampires of the City|author=Metacritic|date=May 14, 2013|publisher=[[CBS Interactive]]|accessdate=May 9, 2013May 9, 2013}}</ref> British publication ''[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]'' also wrote highly, stating, "A more enjoyable pairing of words and music this year is hard to imagine."<ref name=uncut>{{cite journal | date = June 2013| title =Review: ''Modern Vampires of the City''| journal = [[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]|| page = 63| publisher = [[IPC Media]]| issn =1368-0722}}</ref>


At ''[[American Songwriter]]'', Jim Beviglia called this a "great albums in an era when diminished expectations".<ref name=AS/> Chris Payne of ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' found this release to be "musically accomplished".<ref name=BBM/> ''[[AbsolutePunk.net]]'' staff writer Chris Collum described the album as "absolutely a continuation of the narrative begun by the first two Vampire Weekend records, and is the crown jewel of the band’s artistic endeavors thus far".<ref name=AP/> At ''[[Clash (magazine)|Clash]]'', Gareth James told that the album "conveys one hell of a sense of permanence from a band that once seemed ephemeral and frivolous."<ref name=CL/> [[Drowned in Sound]]'s Marc Burrows found the release to be "simply...immaculate, beautifully balanced and enthralling pop music" that he thought was "marvelous."<ref name=DIS/> Ray Rahman of ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' proclaimed the effort "the perfect album for the coming Atlantic summer", and that it has a "saltwater taffy" aspect to it that is "bright and sweet, with plenty to chew on."<ref name=EW/> At ''[[The Guardian]]'', Alexis Petridis said that the band "succeeds" in transcending their previous sound, which he told that they have staying power "for the long haul" because the release is "impressive and strangely reassuring."<ref name=GU/>
At ''[[American Songwriter]]'', Jim Beviglia called this a "great albums in an era when diminished expectations".<ref name=AS/> Chris Payne of ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' found this release to be "musically accomplished".<ref name=BBM/> ''[[AbsolutePunk.net]]'' staff writer Chris Collum described the album as "a continuation of the narrative begun by the first two Vampire Weekend records, and...the crown jewel of the band’s artistic endeavors thus far".<ref name=AP/> At ''[[Clash (magazine)|Clash]]'', Gareth James told that the album "conveys one hell of a sense of permanence from a band that once seemed ephemeral and frivolous."<ref name=CL/> [[Drowned in Sound]]'s Marc Burrows found the release to be "simply...immaculate, beautifully balanced and enthralling pop music" that he thought was "marvelous."<ref name=DIS/> Ray Rahman of ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' proclaimed the effort "the perfect album for the coming Atlantic summer", and that it has a "saltwater taffy" aspect to it that is "bright and sweet, with plenty to chew on."<ref name=EW/> At ''[[The Guardian]]'', Alexis Petridis said that the band "succeeds" in transcending their previous sound, which he told that they have staying power "for the long haul" because the release is "impressive and strangely reassuring."<ref name=GU/>


The Line of Best Fit's Tyler Boehm affirmed that the band on this album "sound...in complete control", but the release "is not without its sins" because "while always thoughtful and often beautiful, the least captivating of their three albums", however he ended it be stating the release is "a pleasure."<ref name=LBF/> At ''[[Paste (magazine)|Paste]]'', Stephen M. Deusner told that the album has a sound, which is "jarring and perfect", and evoked that this is a "pretty damn good album".<ref name=PA/> Nathan Brackett of ''[[Rolling Stone (magazine)|Rolling Stone]]'' told that the album has a "precise craft and soul that speaks to the heart of city life."<ref name=RS/> At ''[[This Is Fake DIY]]'', Danny Wright alluded to this being the bands "most complete" release that is "full of heart and full of ideas, it’s big, clever and brilliantly odd."<ref name=DIY/>
The Line of Best Fit's Tyler Boehm affirmed that the band on this album "sound...in complete control", but the release "is not without its sins" because "while always thoughtful and often beautiful, the least captivating of their three albums", however he ended it be stating the release is "a pleasure."<ref name=LBF/> At ''[[Paste (magazine)|Paste]]'', Stephen M. Deusner told that the album has a sound, which is "jarring and perfect", and evoked that this is a "pretty damn good album".<ref name=PA/> Nathan Brackett of ''[[Rolling Stone (magazine)|Rolling Stone]]'' told that the album has a "precise craft and soul that speaks to the heart of city life."<ref name=RS/> At ''[[This Is Fake DIY]]'', Danny Wright alluded to this being the bands "most complete" release that is "full of heart and full of ideas, it’s big, clever and brilliantly odd."<ref name=DIY/>

Revision as of 00:16, 12 May 2013

Untitled

Modern Vampires of the City is the third studio album by the American rock band Vampire Weekend which will be released May 14, 2013 through XL Recordings. Following their second album Contra (2010), the band toured and began writing their next effort during sound checks. After a period in which the quartet pursued different musical projects, they regrouped and began work on their third record in 2011. Working with no deadline in mind, the band brought in an outside record producer for the first time, Ariel Rechtshaid.

Recorded in various locations, including New York, Los Angeles, Martha's Vineyard and apartments, Modern Vampires of the City is an attempt to distance the band from the sound they became heavily associated with following their 2008 debut and Contra. Broadly experimental, the sound featured on the record is the result of a variety of unconventional recording assets, including pitch shifting. The cover art is a 1966 photograph by Neal Boenzi of the smoggiest day in New York City history, on which the air pollution killed at least 169 people. Announced in a New York Times classified in February 2013, two singles have thus far been released: "Diane Young"/"Step", and "Ya Hey".

Background

Vampire Weekend formed in 2006 at Columbia University and is composed of four principal members: lead vocalist and guitarist Ezra Koenig, guitarist/keyboardist and backing vocalist Rostam Batmanglij, drummer and percussionist Chris Tomson, and bassist and backing vocalist Chris Baio. The quartet's debut album, Vampire Weekend (2008), was bolstered by hit single "A-Punk" and their sophomore effort, Contra, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. Both records, certified gold, established Vampire Weekend as "one of the past decade's great indie-rock success stories," and led to fan base composed of "hip, college-educated twentysomethings."[1] Success also brought criticism, and the image seemingly cultivated by the band—"four overprivileged, preppy white guys playing dress-up"—brought backlash and press caricature.[2] By the time the band wrapped their world tour for Contra, they realized they had not taken a break in nearly five years.[1]

During the break, the band members pursued different projects. Baio performed DJ sets and scored the Bob Byington film Somebody Up There Likes Me,[3] Batmanglij recorded solo material and produced tracks for Das Racist,[4] and Koenig collaborated with Major Lazer.[5] "I thought I'd try living in L.A.," Koenig told Rolling Stone, but he lasted four months before heading back East.[1] By the time the band eventually regrouped in 2011, the quartet had amassed plenty of material and made sure to take their time rather than rush a new record. Working with no deadline in mind, the band began work on Modern Vampires of the City.[3]

Recording and production

Modern Vampires of the City was recorded in a variety of locations: SlowDeath Studios in New York, Echo Park "Back House" in Los Angeles, Vox Recording Studios in Hollywood, Rostam Batmanglij's apartment and a guest house on Martha's Vineyard. The band credits Vox Studios with defining spacial quality of the recordings, especially the use of their vintage analog tape machines, with Batmanglij remarking, "Much of the overall sound and approach to the album was being able to record the drums to tape on an old Ampex machine."[6] The band wanted a unique drum sound, and so they recorded in a room with high ceilings and had engineer David Schiffman use a "pretty non-conventional drum miking setup" in which a pair of Neumann U 47s were used as over head mics with RCA 77dx ribbon mics between the Neumanns and the drum kit for added texture. Tape recordings of the drums were then heavily treated and manipulated with Ableton Live plug-ins. Lastly, the band layered samples onto select portions of the drum recordings to accent or shape the finished tone.[6]

Co-produced by Rostam Batmanglij and prodder Ariel Rechtshaid (best known for work with Justin Bieber, Haim and Kylie Minogue), Modern Vampies of the City is an attempt to distance the band from the sounds featured on their debut and Contra. "Whenever we came up with something familiar sounding, it was rejected," said Rechtshaid.[6] Pitch shifting was a major component of recording Modern Vampires of the City. For several tracks, such as "Step", drums were recorded on a Varispeed Tape deck set to a lower speed so that they would play back faster and more high pitched. Drummer Chris Thompson would then re-record the drums playing to the speed up recording to get an uptempo live take.[6] This second recording was then slowed back down to original speed to create an "underwater" effect. The effect is featured prominently on vocals as well. Ezra Koenig's vocals were run through Eventide H949 and 910 on tracks such as "Diane Young", with both the pitch and formant shifted changed to create vocal "baby" or "old man"-sounding vocals.[6] Bass guitar was also recorded straight to tape "with a fairly ambient miking approach where the mic was three feet away from the cabinet". For guitar sounds, Rostam chose not to mic his guitar and instead plugged his Les Paul direct-in to ProTools through a SansAmp Amp Emulation Pedal, a technique used by Jimmy Page.[6]

The band's main mission was to give each recording warmth, feeling that modern digital recordings lacked the warmth of older records.[6] In an attempt to make the recordings less harsh, the band and engineers used a spectrum analyzer, Sonnox SuprEsser and heavily automated EQs to edit out harsher, colder frequencies and soften the mix. With the entire band enlisted, the quartet painstakingly listened to the record several separate times using technology from standard commercial iPod earbuds to professional equipment to ensure the record sounded nice regardless of equipment the listener owned.[6] Desiring to "check the relative warmth levels," the engineers would "go in an perform surgery and automate EQs" in order to make the mixes listenable. The band felt the finished product was something of a third chapter and a continuation of material explored in their previous two efforts. "We thought these three albums should look like they belong together on a bookshelf," said Batmanglij. "We realized that there are things connecting the songs across three albums, like an invisible hand was guiding us. It does feel like we've been able to create three distinct worlds for each album, and yet have them be interconnected."[6]

Composition

Much of the lyricism found on their third record was composed by Batmanglij and Koenig in Batmanglij's apartment (a former factory building in Brooklyn) and at a rented cottage on Martha's Vineyard.[1] The record's main themes are love and mortality and the lyrics contain darker literary allusions.[1][2] "Step", which has been described as "Simon & Garfunkel dropping acid on a merry-go-round," was inspired by tenor saxophonist Grover Washington and Bread. The vocal melody of the chorus interprets the melody of the Bread song "Aubrey" so close that the band had to clear it as a sample.[6] The chorus vocals were recorded in Ableton Live using the onboard microphone in Batmanglij's MacBook Pro.[6]

Promotion

The band announced a new album would be due on May 6 via XL Recordings on their website in January 2013. The bottom of the image featured the initials for the album, sparking speculation for fans and critics.[7] Following a tweet from the band's official Twitter account that read "NYT Classifieds…" the album's title and release date were confirmed in the February 4 edition of The New York Times. The sole entry in the "Notices & Lost and Found" column of the daily newspaper read: "Modern Vampires of the City, May 7, 2013".[8] The band updated their official website with the track listing and several tour dates shortly thereafter.[8]

Reception

Critical reviews

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AbsolutePunk.net9.5/10[9]
American Songwriter[10]
Billboard88/100[11]
Clash9/10[12]
Drowned in Sound9/10[13]
Entertainment WeeklyA-[14]
The Guardian[15]
The Line of Best Fit[16]
Paste8.7/10[17]
Rolling Stone[18]
This Is Fake DIY9/10[19]

Modern Vampires of the City received almost universally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews and ratings from mainstream critics, the album received a metascore of 82, based on 18 reviews.[20] British publication Uncut also wrote highly, stating, "A more enjoyable pairing of words and music this year is hard to imagine."[21]

At American Songwriter, Jim Beviglia called this a "great albums in an era when diminished expectations".[10] Chris Payne of Billboard found this release to be "musically accomplished".[11] AbsolutePunk.net staff writer Chris Collum described the album as "a continuation of the narrative begun by the first two Vampire Weekend records, and...the crown jewel of the band’s artistic endeavors thus far".[9] At Clash, Gareth James told that the album "conveys one hell of a sense of permanence from a band that once seemed ephemeral and frivolous."[12] Drowned in Sound's Marc Burrows found the release to be "simply...immaculate, beautifully balanced and enthralling pop music" that he thought was "marvelous."[13] Ray Rahman of Entertainment Weekly proclaimed the effort "the perfect album for the coming Atlantic summer", and that it has a "saltwater taffy" aspect to it that is "bright and sweet, with plenty to chew on."[14] At The Guardian, Alexis Petridis said that the band "succeeds" in transcending their previous sound, which he told that they have staying power "for the long haul" because the release is "impressive and strangely reassuring."[15]

The Line of Best Fit's Tyler Boehm affirmed that the band on this album "sound...in complete control", but the release "is not without its sins" because "while always thoughtful and often beautiful, the least captivating of their three albums", however he ended it be stating the release is "a pleasure."[16] At Paste, Stephen M. Deusner told that the album has a sound, which is "jarring and perfect", and evoked that this is a "pretty damn good album".[17] Nathan Brackett of Rolling Stone told that the album has a "precise craft and soul that speaks to the heart of city life."[18] At This Is Fake DIY, Danny Wright alluded to this being the bands "most complete" release that is "full of heart and full of ideas, it’s big, clever and brilliantly odd."[19]

Tracklisting

No.TitleLength
1."Obvious Bicycle"4:11
2."Unbelievers"3:22
3."Step"4:11
4."Diane Young"2:40
5."Don't Lie"3:33
6."Hannah Hunt"3:57
7."Everlasting Arms"3:03
8."Finger Back"3:25
9."Worship You"3:21
10."Ya Hey"5:12
11."Hudson"4:14
12."Young Lion"1:45

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Simon Vozick-Levinson (May 2013). "25 Reasons to Be Excited About Rock Right Now: Because Vampire Weekend Just Keeps Getting Better and Better". No. 1182. Rolling Stone. p. 50-51. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ a b Nosheen Iqbal (May 3, 2013). "Vampire Weekend: 'People tried to pretend we were rich idiots'". The Guardian. Retrieved May 6, 2013. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ a b Dan Hyman (April 26, 2012). "Vampire Weekend Hatching 'A Ton' of Material for New LP". Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 16, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ "ROSTAM". Rostam.tumblr.com. Retrieved 2012-04-09.
  5. ^ "Coming Soon - 2012's Albums Worth Waiting For | Clash Music Exclusive General". Clashmusic.com. Retrieved 2012-04-09.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Nothing As It Seems". Electronic Musician. June 2013.
  7. ^ Laura Snapes and Amy Phillips (January 22, 2013). "Vampire Weekend Announce Album Release Date". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved May 6, 2013.
  8. ^ a b Laura Snapes and Amy Phillips (February 4, 2013). "Vampire Weekend Announce Modern Vampires of the City Album Details and Tour Dates". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved May 6, 2013.
  9. ^ a b Collum, Chris (May 10, 2013). "Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City". AbsolutePunk.net. Retrieved May 10, 2013.
  10. ^ a b Beviglia, Jim (May 8, 2013). "Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City". American Songwriter. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
  11. ^ a b Payne, Chris (May 8, 2013). "Vampire Weekend, 'Modern Vampires of the City': Track-by-Track Review". Clash. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
  12. ^ a b James, Gareth (May 6, 2013). "Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City". Clash. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
  13. ^ a b Burrows, Marc (May 9, 2013). "Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
  14. ^ a b Rahman, Ray (May 7, 2013). "Vampire Weekend's new album 'Modern Vampires of the City' streaming now on iTunes: Read EW's review here". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
  15. ^ a b Petridis, Alexis (May 9, 2013). "Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City - review". The Guardian. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
  16. ^ a b Boehm, Tyler (May 7, 2013). "Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
  17. ^ a b Deusner, Stephen M. (May 7, 2013). "Vampire Weekend Modern Vampires of the City". Paste. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
  18. ^ a b Brackett, Nathan (May 7, 2013). "Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City (XL)". Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
  19. ^ a b Wright, Danny (May 2, 2013). "Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City". This Is Fake DIY. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
  20. ^ Metacritic (May 14, 2013). "Critic Reviews for Modern Vampires of the City". CBS Interactive. Retrieved May 9, 2013May 9, 2013. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  21. ^ "Review: Modern Vampires of the City". Uncut. IPC Media: 63. June 2013. ISSN 1368-0722. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
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