Following their celebrated return to our shores this past January for the Big Day Out, Vampire Weekend sneakily announced their new album through the classifieds section of the New York Times.
The note, which was left under the ‘Lost and Found’ column, advertised “Modern Vampires of the City, May 7, 2013,” soon led to the reveal of artwork and a track listing for the New York outfit’s third album, Modern Vampires of the City.
Now, Vampire Weekend have eagerly dropped not one, but two new singles from forthcoming release in the form of ‘Diane Young’ and ‘Step’, which as Rolling Stone points out, have been heralded as a step away from the band’s past work, seeing the quartet exploring more electronic impulses with this new material.
First up, the frantic and hyperactive, drum-driven ‘Diane Young’, which begins with Vampire Weekend’s signature boppyness with an added level of vocal manipulation for frontman Ezra Koenig. The punch-drunk track sounds a little bit rockabilly and a little bit video-gamey, this genre bending mixture is punchy, loud and fun but certainly a different approach for the band.
The subdued but sassy ‘Step’ on the other hand, has the same jangly guitars and pretty piano lines heard on their debut release back in 2008, along with classic Vampire Weekend lyricism of jumbling words and convoluted sentences. Koenig’s simple but cute rhymes are in full stride with this stripped back number with charming lines like “Ancestors told me that their girl was better/She’s richer than Croesus, she’s tougher than leather.“The new material notes a change of pace for the four-piece with their boppy drum-driven numbers getting a new electronic makeover on Modern Vampires of the City.
Following on from the debut of new track “Unbelievers”, on late-night American television program Jimmy Kimmel Live! in October of last year, the new material notes a change of pace for the four-piece with their boppy drum-driven numbers getting a new electronic makeover on Modern Vampires of the City
In an interview with Q Magazine in January, frontman Ezra Koenig described the new material on Modern Vampires of the City as “darker and more organic” and “very much the last of a trilogy,” which rounds off their commercially successful previous releases, 2008’s self-titled debut and 2010’s Contra.
Modern Vampires Of The City is set for release on May 7th and joins the long list of long-awaited returns with the disco-influenced album from Parisian duo Daft Punk, the latest from grunge veterans Mudhoney, new material from Brooklyn outfit The National, the latest from Parisian indie popsters Phoenix, the fifth LP from New Yorkers The Strokes, David Bowie’s first new album in a decade, and anticipated releases from the likes of Vampire Weekend, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and The Knife’s 98 minute opus, Shaking The Habitual.
Similarly we can see brand new tunes from local artists including a long overdue return from Empire of the Sun, the Cat Empire’s latest, the second album from Melbourne twosome Big Scary, the Russian inspired return of Midnight Juggernauts, and a heap of new albums from the likes of Bernard Fanning, Birds of Tokyo, Hermitude, Airbourne, Super Wild Horses, and new material from Perth outfit Pond.
You can view/hear Vampire Weeekend’s ‘Diane Young’ up top in the banner, and hear ‘Steps’ below along with the album artwork and tracklisting.
Modern Vampires of the City Tracklist:
01. Obvious Bicycle
02. Unbelievers
03. Step
04. Diane Young
05. Don’t Lie
06. Hannah Hunt
07. Everlasting Arms
08. Finger Back
09. Worship You
10. Ya Hey
11. Hudson
12. Young Lion
