7. Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City
Modern Vampires of the City was the moment when Vampire Weekend stopped knowing everything. Ezra Koenig turned his gaze from mansard roofs and diplomats’ children to wonder aloud about God and the nature of existence. Rostam Batmanglij, now working with producer Ariel Rechtshaid, crafted his most sentimental, stirring music yet. “If I can’t trust you then dammit, Hannah/There’s no future, there’s no answer,” Koenig sings softly on “Hannah Hunt,” interrogating a relationship in novelistic detail, winking toward hopelessness while suggesting that all the universe’s truths can be contained in a single love affair. Later, on “Ya Hey,” Koenig confronts God, asking how He could remain silent in a rotten world. Again, he seems to know the answer: There’s never an answer. –Matthew Strauss / Pitchfork.com
