From Vampire Weekend, we no longer expected much other than the nice, but refined, indie rock song that he has been serving us for more than fifteen years already, even if the personnel changes around the leader, Ezra Koening, should have shaken his apple tree. What a delightful surprise is this fifth album, which delves into psychedelic pop and baroque orchestrations for the rock song of what is now a trio! The texts are as rich as ever (in references to New York, in particular) and this time offer a reflection on the passing of time. However, it is the orchestrations that give the group its relevance again: this omnipresent upright piano, this contrast between the arrangements of strings and retro choirs and the noisy, roaring electric guitars, above which floats the soft and plucked voice of Koening . Good songs abound: Classical at the start of the album (still inspired by Graceland by Paul Simon), the ballad Capricorn, Gen-X Cops, the blower Hope in the finale, of an unprecedented kind in the group’s discography.
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To watch on video