Father of the Bride 14May19

Seeing as I was on the road for the drop of Vampire Weekend's FotB, I couldn't download it all till back in civilization with sufficient supporting infrastructure... not a 3G personal hotspot. I've been listening to Ezra's "bi-monthly" double-singles of new songs and watching their live appearances in the months leading up to the album release recently - and posted some. I've purchased it all now - I bought a very good 96/24 version from HD Tracks of this double album and was able to audit on my full desktop headphone system. It's awesome: immense breadth of genre tasted, cool collaborators offering keen notes & feels, spicy guitar licks and darker lyrics throughout - more later.

VW set a record with this being their 3rd straight #1 album release says Billboard... despite the last being over six years ago. Speaks to the staying power of a critical fan base - and another keen album offer of course. It is different with Batmanglij leaving the band and not turning most of the dials - but it is still very cool.

I won't go song by song but Ezra dials back the Afro beat a bit and dials up Americana in compositions, playing and voicing. Especially on duets with Danielle Haim (opening Hold You Now, Married in a Gold Rush, and We Belong Together) the folk aspect moves forward. The collaboration with the Internet's Steve Lacy are unforgettably different and cool: Sunflower psyche and Flower Moon autotunes are like being in the room with Brian Wilson. Harmony Hall was the first single dropped from the album and it is very good - reminiscent of the Dead on Touch of Grey. There's so much more here, like Jenny Lewis's "boy" on 2021 or the classic VW afro sound on Stranger. Many critics are discounting the album or the more straightforward, but dark, lyrics - they'll be proven wrong - this is another very good offer from VW.