Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City (2013)

There are two genres of the 'rock compartment' that just don't resonate with me on a particular level, and those are indie rock and black metal. Aside from occasional snippets of musical prowess or some specific elements that blend into other compositions of different styles, I find these two types of instrumental expression to be so obtrusively boring that I can't stand them even as background noise (Marco black metal included). And yet, here I am, putting 'pen to paper' what might be described as a review to this indie rock band's latest output, Modern Vampires of the City. 

Now ain't that just superior of me, huh?

Me feeling like Chester

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's get on with the actual record.

I've come across this band courtesy of a local radio station that featured in several occasions one of their songs, called Ya Hey. This track turned out to be quite a pleasant listen, save for a few minor flaws like the appearance of a bombastic tune that doesn't actually develop into one and maybe, just maybe, being one minute longer than it should have been. It also has some thoughtful (if not poetic) lyrics, so I imagined that this could be one of them records that break the monotony a bit from inside the whole staleness of what indie rock represents to me. 

These things said, I've searched for the rest of the songs from this album, with high hopes for a mature, eventually vampire themed magnum opus (as the name suggests), that would prove to be the exception which sends this metalhead here to the corner of one's room, crying in shame for not discovering them earlier and opening up to the possibility of great new music to torture my speakers with.

But it didn't happen. The vocals grew weary on me, vampire references were none to be found (or for the most part, lyrics that might make a little bit of sense to anyone else than the writer - Ya Hey excluded here) and soon I'd found myself reverting my opinion to that which I've stated in the opening paragraph.

I don't know, maybe I'm not cut out for this type of music. Maybe George or Marco will try to explain to me the aching mysteries of what it means to be an indie rock fan, because for the hell of it I cannot fathom an accurate response.

P.S: While researching the band I've come to find out that frontman Ezra Keonig is actually cousins with automotive visionary Christian von Koenigsegg, who started his own car company in his early twenties and now produces some of the fastest cars on the planet. No small feat, I tell you! Also, Ezra seems to have a Romanian legacy, but I didn't actually went about into discovering his whole family tree. 

So maybe for these two tidbits of information, maybe the time was well spent with the band.