#2 – Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
Here’s a case where a band’s later work helps boost my opinion of their debut.
If Vampire Weekend’s self-titled first album was the last good thing they ever did, I would still love it, I’m sure, but the band itself might have been written off as a bunch of college kids who listened to Graceland a lot and got lucky.
Of all the songs on Vampire Weekend’s stellar debut album, ‘One (Blake’s Got a New Face)’ was the hardest to love at first listen. It starts out great, with one of those Graceland riffs that permeate the record, but once Ezra Koenig hits the chorus, all bets are off.
Now I must go on record and say that I’ve always kind of liked the call-and-answer shrillness of this song’s chorus. Its oddness suggests the confidence with which the whole record was made.
Every year I set aside a few weeks in late December to recap my favorite songs of the year. It’s the one blog feature that I actively think about throughout the year — deliberately holding off from posting certain new songs because I know they will likely factor into the best-of series.
But sometimes I get bitten. It sounds funny, but occasionally I’ll post a song before I realize how much I like it. Or I’ll post a track in my “songs of summer” week only to discover that it’s also one of my favorites of the year.
I’ve been in a drought when it comes to discovering new music.
Going back a couple of years in my iTunes library, I see a lot of new releases by groups that I’ve followed for ages.
Aimee Mann, Ben Folds, Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams, Ron Sexsmith, Fiona Apple… lots of old favorites. Not a lot of new ones.
Meet Me In Montauk 