Fast forward ten years. I have certainly kept up with
Vampire Weekend and never really stopped listening to them. Shortly before I
was to depart for a two-week trip to Europe, their album Father of the Bride came out. “Harmony Hall” was the first song I
heard off that album, and I instantly loved it. It’s one of those songs that
stops you in your tracks.
Over the course of that trip, my friend Kim and I listened
to that album. So many of the songs were so sad and evoked this feeling of
terrible emptiness, which we likened to the end of our trip. Just days after I
returned from my trip, my friend Sarah and I talked endlessly about this album.
There’s something about it that brought out so many deep feelings, but we can’t
stop listening to it. As I write this, Father
of the Bride is playing on my record player.
This album rekindled my love for Vampire Weekend. Their
first three albums are much happier and poppier than Father of the Bride, but they remind me of much simpler times. Contra is a masterpiece. With the
exception of “Diane Young,” all the other songs on this list are from Contra.
So here are my top ten Vampire Weekend songs. You may notice
that the first half of them are from Father
of the Bride, but I haven’t had an album hit me so hard since Hamilton. Plus, Father of the Bride is an 18-track album, which is basically two
albums in one. I could have made a list of ten songs from Father of the Bride alone, but don’t worry, I did include some
variety.
Harmony Hall
“Harmony Hall” has brought me to near tears. More than once. The lyrics are
stunning, and I’ve heard rumors it’s about the 2016 election: “wicked snakes
inside a place we thought was dignified” sure does sound like American politics
right now. The chorus of “I don’t want to live like this, but I don’t want to
die” can describe many of my days. “Harmony Hall” has a Paul Simon sound to it,
which is so comforting to me. I cannot get enough of this song.
Jerusalem, New York, Berlin
This is the last song on the album, which feels fitting. The
song itself sounds final, and I actually hadn’t heard it until I returned from
Berlin. Vampire Weekend speaks so well to desperation and insecurity in this
album, and this song’s refrain is no exception: “All I do is lose, but baby/All
I want’s to win.”
Stranger
These songs all mean so much to me coming off my trip to
Europe. I had never been to Europe before, and that trip changed everything. I
met some incredible people, did incredible things, and learned a lot about
myself. Coming home, though, was more difficult than I ever imagined. I missed
(and still do miss) the freedom, the new experiences, and the time with
friends. Coming back to work and life was strange: “things have never been
stranger/things are gonna stay strange.”
Rich Man
You guys, the VIOLIN in this song. It’s completely unexpected
and absolutely gorgeous. I also love the waltz feeling to this song, which is
so different than anything I’ve heard in a long time. You also may notice
maracas, The instrumentation in this song is to die for.
This Life
While this is one of the most upbeat songs on the album,
it’s also one of the saddest. “Baby, I know dreams tend to crumble at
extremes/I just thought our dream would last a little bit longer.” This song
makes me want to dance, but it also makes me want to cry. It’s about suffering
and pain, but I can’t stop listening to it. “Oh Christ, I am good for nothing?
This life and all its suffering.”
Diane Young
Ok, I’m taking a break from Father of the Bride and moving on to the rest of Vampire Weekend’s
repertoire. “Diane Young” is from their third album, which was markedly
different than Father of the Bride. “Diane
Young” is a wordplay on “dying young,” and the song is about living
dangerously. One of my favourite lines from this song is “You got the luck of a
Kennedy.”
California English
One of the things I love most about Vampire Weekend is their
willingness to experiment with unusual beats and instrumentation. “California
English” is so fast-based with a weird beat, and it is so appealing. They sing
so fast I can barely understand what the lyrics are, and it’s over before you
know it.
Giving Up the Gun
You may have realized by now I love sad songs. My absolute favourite
songs are the ones questioning identity and whether or not one has lived a
worthwhile life. I am not a terribly sad person, but I do tend to wonder if I’m
living the best life I can. Bands like Vampire Weekend, the Killers, and Twenty
One Pilots feed right into that feeling with their incredible music. “Giving Up
the Gun” is about the glory days of youth and how nothing will be the same. I
often think about college and what an incredible time that was – but that
experience is something that cannot be replicated. Don’t get me wrong: life is
good. But life is different.
Horchata
I have never had horchata, but this song makes me want to
drink it so badly. This is certainly the only song I know that rhymes “horchata”
with “balaclava” and it WORKS. One of the lines in this song is “here comes a
feeling you thought you’d forgotten,” which to me, harkens back to trying to
grasp that feeling of freedom from college again. I felt that feeling in
Berlin, and it was a feeling I thought I’d forgotten. What a great feeling it
was.
White Sky
This song is so gentle and peaceful. It’s about exploring
New York City, but I think it could be about exploring a lot of places. I
absolutely love the part when Ezra Koening just sings the oohs and ahhs in such
an interesting vocal pattern. Again: Vampire Weekend is not afraid to
experiment.
There’s a league of other songs that I love so much that didn’t quite make the list in comparison to the others. I have more than enough favourites to write a Vampire Weekend part II blog. Vampire Weekend can do no wrong. In case you were curious:
- Hold Me Now
- 2021
- Sunflower
- M79
- Cousins
- Step
- Married in a Gold Rush
- We Belong Together
- Run
- Holiday
- Campus
- Bambina
(Vampire Weekend is just the latest in a long line of bands to receive the ten favourite song treatment. If you'd like to read about my other favorite bands and my ten favorite songs of theirs, here you go:)
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