Father of the Bride is Vampire Weekend’s fourth album, It’s the long-awaited follow-up to 2013’s Modern Vampires of the City. Since then founding member/producer Rostam Batmanglij left the band as a full-time member.
It’s been almost six years since we last heard from New York’s Ezra Koenig and co. Here they have gone deep into the address book and called upon a wide array of collaborators from Danielle Haim to Hans Zimmer to Mark Ronson. It all comes together thanks to careful indie-pop curation from Koenig.
Previously Vampire Weekend shared two songs from Father of the Bride: “Harmony Hall” and “2021,” as well as a video for “Harmony Hall.” Then they shared two more songs: “Sunflower” (which features Steve Lacy of The Internet and “Big Blue.”Then they shared a video for “Sunflower” directed by actor Jonah Hill and featuring comedy legend Jerry Seinfeld and rapper/visual artist Fab 5 Freddy. Then they shared another two songs: “This Life”and“Unbearably White.”
“This Life,” which features backing vocals from Danielle Haim of the band HAIM, “We Belong Together,” a duet with Haim, .
This year Vampire Weekend released a new album, Father of the Bride, today via Columbia. The band already shared six songs prior to the album’s release, but the album features 18 tracks so there are 12 other songs . Three of those songs are duets with Danielle Haim of HAIM, including album opener “Hold You Now.” Our favorite of the non-singles is probably another duet with Haim, “We Belong Together.” In it the band’s Ezra Koenig and Haim sing about all the ways they belong together, but also admit that it might not be enough to actually keep them together.
There is a simple rule in pop music: if you find yourself with a double album to fill, make a bloody mess out of it. You can eventually locate unity or conceptualism à la The Who or The Kinks—but for god’s sake, have a mad blast either way. For their first album in six years, Vampire Weekend and singer-songwriter Ezra Koenig sailed beyond the alterna-nerd pop Graceland cover act usual. Here, Koenig and VW jump through piano-rich ballads, bachelor pad lounge music, jam sounds, outlaw country, samba, emo, and cinematic atmospheres, making it all sound unified and blissfully cascading in a fashion you’ve never heard from them before. The not-so-haunted proceedings of Father of the Bride are more theatrical and orchestrated—but with just a smidgen less quirk and busywork—than their music of the past. We knew that Vampire Weekend was charmed, but on Bride, they’ve actually become charming.
Father of the Bride feels like Vampire Weekend has grown up emotionally, and their music is richer for it. It’s an ambitious double album, sweeping through the joy, the pain, the success and the failure of young adult life.
The catchy hooks and sing-a-long lyrics are still there in tracks like ‘Harmony Hall’, ‘Bambina’ and ‘This Life’, and there’s some impressive collabs with Danielle Haim, Mark Ronson, and The Internet’s Steve Lacy.
Father of the Bride is the band’s fourth album. The band’s last album was 2013’s Modern Vampires of the City.
This record is an incredible listen , yes. It is also more than that. It is an artistic touchstone. It stands as an example of how great art should make you feel, of the line between accessibility and profundity, A forward-facing album with a focus on the theme of rebirth, it does, at times, look over its shoulder, taking inspiration from classic country.
Father of the Bride released 3rd May 2019:
The Fat Angel Sings 