Vampire Weekend releases Father of the Bride

Vampire Weekend, the preppy band from Columbia University, released their fourth studio album Father of the Bride in early May of 2019. This 18 song album holds hit songs such as “Harmony Hall”, “This Life”, “Bambina”, “How Long?”, “Sympathy”, and “Jerusalem New York Berlin”. Father of the Bride also features Steve Lacy, an American pop songwriter, and Danielle Haim, an alternative indie song writer in the band Haim.

Vampire Weekend’s last album release was in 2013 with the other hit album Modern Vampires of the City. Ever since then, Vampire Weekend fans have been patiently waiting for more. Father of the Bride, although not proclaimed as their best album, was still a big hit. “Harmony Hall”, the second song on the album, has been thought of as the best song on this track. “Harmony Hall” was written with the help of Rostam Batmanglij, a former pianist and song writer for Vampire Weekend.

In my opinion, “Harmony Hall” is the best song from Vampire Weekend with its piano style rock and its iconic refrain “I don’t wanna live like this, but I don’t wanna die” which showed up previously in their song “Finger Back”. “Harmony Hall” was their first teaser song for Father of the Bride and was released in early January. With the help of skilled guitarist Brian Robert Jones, who was recruited after Rostam left the band, Vampire Weekend has been able to add a much more complex guitar aspect to their songs. We see this in the tracks “This Life”, “Bambina”, “Unbearably White”, and “Sympathy”.

These songs all have an upbeat, funky, dance music, type vibe in them. Although with many dance music type songs, Ezra Koenig never fails to bring a dark, depressing music vibe in songs such as “My Mistake”, and “Jerusalem New York Berlin”. This theme was very prevalent in their album Modern Vampires of the City which along with its black and white cover prevails the theme of lost hope and depression. Another common theme in almost all the songs of Modern Vampires of the City and some from Father of the Bride is religion.

(c) Columbia Records

Ezra Koenig’s song “Bambina” talks about the influence of Christianity on his life while still following his devout jewish faith. The emotional song “Jerusalem New York Berlin” talks all about “a wicked world” referencing the immorality of mankind especially to Jews. Along with “a wicked world”, the song talks about the three capital cities with obvious Jewish connections to them. Father of the Bride, although with its strong religious and emotional influence, still manages to add short songs that have very light and happy tunes in them such as “2021”, “Big Blue”, and “Sunflower”.

These songs add a happy and positive style of music to this very complex and diverse album. The diversity of this album also stretches to the point of romantic music in the songs “We Belong Together”, “Married in a Gold Rush”, “Hold you Now”, which are all duets with Danielle Haim. From its fast paced guitar rhythms to its slow, emotional songs with religious background, Father of the Bride is one of Vampire Weekend’s greatest works. With the excellent Modern Vampires of the City as their last album and the release of Father of the Bride, Vampire Weekend has made it known that they are one of the best Indie/Alternative rock bands of our generation.