Looks like I got picked for this week so here we go!
Modern Vampires of the City - Vampire Weekend
This is one of my favorite albums. Rostam’s production is fantastic as always and the Songwriting is great as well. Hannah Hunt is a stand out track that is widely regarded as one of their best songs.
I got really into Vampire Weekend in college and have caught them live a few times. They always put on a great show but they’ve gone through an interesting evolution over the years. They started as a 4 piece band and were making some (very popular) east-coast indie music. Rostam, who is a very accomplished producer as well as a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, produced their first 3 albums, including this one, after which he departed from the band.
One of the reasons I picked this band and this album is because after this point, the band had a significant shift in sound and style. Notable, they very intentionally ventured into the “Jam” arena on their fourth album. I think this is an interesting especially since this is a King Gizzard community, who have also been leaning more into jams and improvisation lately.
This album, however, is not that. The longest tracks are just over 4 minutes, and at the time their live shows were all pretty straightforward, by which I mean their setlists were all pretty much identical, and they played the songs as they were on the album. (I’m not saying this is a bad thing) It’s a really tight album, and it experiments a little bit but stays within the realm of Indie Rock.
I bring up this band because I think it’s a band with a significantly different style to King Gizzard, yet some surprising similarities. This is my favorite album of theirs and I think the production and songwriting is fantastic. Hope yall enjoy it!
I’m going to cheat a little and link to a song off their most recent album as well:
