The first half of this year has seen a deluge of new releases, particularly by the women currently dominating the popular music conversation. Over the next two weeks, I’ll offer quick takes on eight new releases by those artists — and because I like to rank things, I’ll do it in countdown fashion.
But first, I’ll address a couple of other new releases that don’t fit into the “New Albums by Women Who Rock” category.
The upcoming album I’m most excited about is Vampire Weekend’s Only God Was Above Us, the indie band’s fifth release and first since 2019’s Father of the Bride.
Not only is this one of my favorite bands, but I was completely unaware they were recording new material, let alone that an album was due in early April. What a welcome surprise!
It’s been more than two years since I last featured a Vampire Weekend song on the blog — a whole pandemic!
It’s been just shy of three years since the band released a new album. 2019’s Father of the Bride, their fourth release, was the first without founding member and co-songwriter Rostam Batmanglij. The left lead singer Ezra Koenig to carry the creative weight, a role he seemed to relish.
But no new music since.
Here we go. This week I will reveal my five favorite albums of the last decade. Three of these appeared on my list of “best albums of the decade so far” back in 2014, though in slightly different order. The other two were released during the past five years.
At #5 is the third album by Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires of the City. This was the band’s final album with multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij in the lineup, and it remains their best work to date.
At long last, today marks the release of Father of the Bride, Vampire Weekend’s fourth studio album. This is one of my most anticipated records of the year given the band’s stellar track record to date.
Early song releases have been promising, though a few of them were more like filler than actual songs. That’s fine with me. I don’t like hearing much of an album before I can hear the whole thing.
Meet Me In Montauk 