Parents' Pick #4: Modern Vampires of the City by Vampire Weekend Revised

         

   Vampire Weekend is one of my dad’s favorite bands, to this day he still talks about how mad he is that he was not able to go and see them when they came and played at an outdoor concert venue near our house…That was at least 4 years ago. I also love Vampire Weekend and personally I think the album I will be discussing in this post is their best work so far. Vampire Weekend is an American band from New York City that was formed in 2006. In 2008 the band released their first album self titled Vampire Weekend, it included hits such as “A-Punk” and “Oxford Comma,” which is an opinion driven "fuck-you" to the upper class and their haughty focuses on stupid things like spelling and grammar and wealth. After that they released an album titled Contra and most recently Modern Vampires of the City which is the album I will be discussing in this post.

            The album starts out with the slow, slightly distorted song “Obvious Bicycle” about a jobless man. In this first song we start to see exactly how Vampire Weekend has matured both in their music and lyrics. Rather than the upbeat giddiness of their first albums we see a much softer or even struggling side of the band. It is clear they are feeling the pains of being adults talking about jobs in their lyrics, but even the music and harmonies are much more sophisticated than they used to be. In fact, my favorite part of “Obvious Bicycle” is the slightly delayed almost gospel like harmonies in the chorus, they are so well done you can hear the desperation of the song without even listening to the lyrics. You can also hear about the pains of growing up in many of the other songs on the album such as in “Diane Young", which is a much more upbeat discussion of the struggle, when Ezra Koenig sings “And it's bad enough just getting old.” He wants to be young still, he doesn’t want to grow up. In the song "Step" we also see the slower more sophisticated side of the "new" Vampire Weekend with a slow, soft harpsichord surrounding Koenig's voice. The hostile attitude towards aging is also once again seen in the lyrics when Koenig sings "Wisdom's a gift, but you'd trade it for youth."
             Perhaps Vampire Weekend's obsession with youth and age has an entirely different motivation than just having a hard time dealing with more responsibilities. If I were to just listen to "Obvious Bicycle," that is all I would have thought it was about. But after listening and looking more into the lyrics of "Step," maybe that is not it at all. It seems to me that Vampire Weekend is more concerned with the length of their music career. Musicians tend to start out pretty young and then slowly fall off of the grid as they age, and Vampire Weekend is starting to concern themselves with how much time they have left in this industry. But for all the fans out there, I wouldn't worry too much because it is very clear from this album that they don't give a crap about what is considered normal in this industry when it comes to age. In "Step" Koenig says "Age is a number, it's still not the truth." Clearly saying that even though his age may increase he still does not feel that old and he still has more things to say and more music to write. 

            Another major theme seen on this album that directly connects with aging is religion. It is made very clear on this album that as Vampire Weekend is starting to mature in both music and life, they are asking more questions about faith and that is definitely all connected, once we start to see and understand more of the world we are able to formulate our own thoughts, opinions, and questions about it. This theme first appears in the second song on the album “Unbelievers.” The pre-chorus of this song is “We know the fire waits unbelievers/All of the sinners the same/Girl you and I will die unbelievers bound to the tracks of the train.” Clearly Koenig is singing about his disagreement with the fundamentalists of the world, but more than that he is trying to discuss what our beliefs might say about us and how they can dictate our fate. The tenth song on the album “Ya Hey” is about the burning bush from the Book of Exodus in which God told Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt to Canaan. Also, the lyrics of “Everlasting Arms” include “Dies Irae” which is a reference to “Judgment Day.”

            While it is extremely obvious that many of the songs on this album have religious references, at first it was not very clear what exactly Vampire Weekend is trying to say about religion. They reference all different faiths, everything from Atheism to Buddhism and in between. So what does this mean? To me this shows the artists’ struggle to find themselves. They are unable to focus on one religion because they are not sure what religion they truly believe in. One lyric in particular from the song “Everlasting Arms,” in the song Koenig sings “Oh I was born to live without you/But I’m never gonna understand, never understand.” These lines remind me of an article by Dr. Eugene P. Trager called “The Many Faces of Faith” in which he questions “Are some of us programmed for God? Is this "programming" hard-wired into our brains? Is the hard-wiring a result of genetic processes? Is this programming a result of parental upbringing, of psychological and cultural influences, of emotional needs?” With the songs on this album, like "Everlasting Arms" in which Koenig sings " Oh I was made to live without you
But I’m never gonna understand, never understand," Vampire Weekend is trying to ask the same things.

            To try and understand the bands religious view points a little better, I did some research on the two main song writers for the group, Ezra Koenig and Rostam Batmanglij. I found that Koenig was raised Jewish which explains a lot about “Unbelievers.” I could not find anything on Rostam Batmanglij's faith but did find that he is openly gay, so he most likely is looking for a religion that will accept him for who he is. This album definitely dives deep into the complexity of growing up and having to find a place for yourself in the world as a functioning and independent adult, and being able to decide and voice your own beliefs is just one of the many struggles in this stage of life. Which is why to get a clear answer about what conclusion Vampire Weekend came to about religion I had to go back and dive deeper into the lyrics rather than their lives.
            After realizing what they were trying to say, I felt kind of dumb that it took me so long to figure it out since it was right there in the lyrics and music the whole time. The whole album is fixated on not wanting to grow older and die. What Koenig was trying to share with the audience in the music is the one thing he noticed in religion is that the people who are "good" die first. I mean the title of the song "Diane Young" is just a play on the phrase "dying young," and in the song Koenig sings "Live my life in self defense/You know I love the past, 'cause I hate suspense." He's scared of what's next, he's scared it will be death and he's clearly not ready for that. This theme became obvious to me when I was listening to the end of "Don't Lie" when Koenig says "I want to know, does it bother you? The low click of a ticking clock/There's a headstone right in front of you/And everyone I know." Immediately followed by "Don't lie, I'm want 'em to know/God's loves die young, are you ready to go?" He's so concerned with the fact that faithful people live short lives and their time is running out. This concern clearly causes him to question whether it's worth staying true to his religion if it means he won't be able to live his life as full as he wants to. 
          Modern Vampires of the City was like a coming of age novel for Vampire Weekend, with obvious ties to the struggles of growing up and starting to question the world around them. This “growing up” was shown through the increased complexity of both their lyrics and music compared to their previous albums which were mostly upbeat and heavy with percussion with slightly angry lyrics about the upper class. I can only hope they continue this maturing in future albums, I was extremely fond with the shifted focus on different instruments and content areas. Hopefully me and my dad will be able to catch them on tour in the near future. 

Parents' Pick #3: Running on Empty by Jackson Browne

        

    Last week I reviewed an album from 2014 but this week we are gonna throw it back to 1977. In this post I will be discussing Jackson Browne’s album Running on Empty. I know this album is one of my parents’ personal favorites both of them feature it on their playlists. I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve listened to songs on this album in the kitchen during dinner, and don’t even get me started on how mad my parents would get if I accidentally put the playlist on shuffle and “Stay” didn’t play directly after “The Load Out.” If you don’t understand that you will before the end of this post I promise.

            Jackson Browne is an American singer-song writer who was born in Germany but grew up in Los Angeles, California. I could go on and on about how much I personally love him as an artist but I’ll just let the facts speak for themselves. Browne has sold over 18 million albums in the United States and was even inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

            Running on Empty was Browne’s fifth album released, and to me his most interesting and best due to his documentary like approach to it. This album was recorded entirely on tour, combining live performances complete with crowd interaction with recordings made on buses, in hotel rooms, and even backstage. This aspect brings a whole new appreciation for the album because you get more of the concert experience without even having to go to one. The way it was recorded also adds significant meaning to the album’s overall concept because all of the songs are about life as a touring musician always on the road.

            The album opens up with the title song “Running on Empty” which while being a fast paced upbeat song has pretty depressing lyrics to go along with it. The song starts out with a big drum pattern and a guitar in full swing which is quickly accompanied by a harmonious piano melody. But the lyrics are about how hard it is to be on the road all the time for example Browne sings “You know I don’t even know what I’m hoping to find. Running into the sun but I’m running behind.” From these lyrics you would assume Browne hates what he does and resents the life he’s living but that’s where the upbeat instruments come into play. The instrumental of the song gives a different meaning to the song, while the life Browne is living is really tiring and hard as shown in the lyrics, it’s also very rewarding to him and it’s what he loves to do which is what the music shows us. This song is followed by a much slower song called “The Road” which features a surprisingly mesmerizing fiddle, I could talk about what this song is about but it’s pretty clear from the title that it’s about life on the road as are every song on the album so I won’t get into too much detail about that.
       My two personal favorites on this album are the last two songs, in which Browne explains why he continues to live this exhausting life. He spends the whole album talking about the hardships of touring and then in “The Load Out” and “Stay” it’s like this moment of clarity where he realizes the meaning behind everything he does. In “The Load Out” Browne sings about the crew loading everything onto the bus to go to the next show and him just wanting to stay there and continue playing. My favorite lyric is when he says “We just pass the time in our hotel rooms and wander round backstage till those lights come up and we hear that crowd and we remember why we came.” It just shows Browne’s passion and love for music which is something everyone loves to hear in an artist’s performances and songs. “The Load Out” builds directly up to “Stay” which also enforces Browne’s want to continue playing music rather than leaving for another town again.

            Another intriguing aspect about this album is how much it says about the music culture and the culture of touring musicians especially. Lyrically this album shows audiences a lot about the behind the scenes of touring that we usually don’t get to see or hear about. It displays both the downsides and upsides of life on the road, it’s not just all glamour and money and fame, it takes a huge emotional toll on these performers. As Browne sang in “The Load Out” they usually don’t even know what day it is or what city they’re playing in next cause they “do so many shows in a row.” But it isn’t all bad, Browne sings about how much they love the time they get to play which is what drives their passion for music and performing. Honestly I never used to think about how exhausted artists are at all of the concerts I’ve been too. Many artists now play multiple shows in a row in one city and instead of sleeping go out and explore the town at night, you have to really love performing to do it on absolutely no sleep and make it look like you’re perfectly fine. I definitely have a new appreciation for musicians after this album opened my eyes to a whole different side of this culture.

            While I realize it may seem a little boring and overdone to do a whole album with songs that are all about the same thing, but Browne pulled it off. They may all be very similar in content but they all show different aspects of that concept, different reasons why life on the road is hard and different reasons why it’s worth it. Over all I really appreciate Browne’s ability to turn an album into a documentary and also make some timeless catchy tunes at the same time. I do wish there were a few more upbeat songs on the album but hey we can’t have everything besides there is always a time when you just need to listen to slow sad songs. While this album may not be relatable to the average audience, it’s understandable and eye opening which is where it’s success comes from.