Vampire Weekend
Modern Vampires of the City (XL)Vampire Weekend has referred to Modern Vampires of the City as the final installment in a trilogy of LPs. You can trace the progression in “Everlasting Arms” and “Finger Back,” which introduce a few wrinkles to the band’s steam-pressed Afro-pop. Yet the New Yorkers’ third album also sounds a lifetime removed from its 2008 postcollegiate debut, working, as its cover suggests, on more of a grayscale to offset its typical summer colors. There’s “Hudson,” which moves in the shadows of ghost-choir synths and marching line drums, while Rostam Batmanglij continues to push his arrangements into ever more adventurous territory (Celtic pipes on “Unbelievers,” the harpsichord half-rap “Step”). A sense of finality comes from Ezra Koenig’s contemplation of dying young, or “Diane Young,” which recalls a blown-out version of Buddy Holly’s NYC apartment tapes. “I want to know – does it bother you? The low click of a ticking clock,” he asks in “Don’t Lie.” If Modern Vampires of the City makes one thing clear, it’s that Vampire Weekend’s just getting started here. (6pm, AMD stage)
This article appears in October 4 • 2013.