Album Themes
Vampire Weekend’s style has changed a lot over the years. In some ways, it seems to have evolved according to significant events in the world that were relevant at the time the songs were written.
They’re All Connected?
This troper recalls seeing a theory that all of VW’s albums are part of a narrative of vampires just sort of being there throughout history, since, well, they’re immortal.
VW - Late Victorian Era
Contra - The '90s
MVOC - WW2 Era
FOTB - The '60s
OGWAU - The New '10s
Their self titled album
The first album the band released is the style that most people would think of when they hear someone talk about Vampire Weekend. Many of the songs are fast-paced, cheerful
Indie Pop tunes. It tends to make a lot of references to other musicians and media, including Ezra’s unreleased film about a man who believes that vampires are coming to invade Cape Cod on the weekend, from which the band takes its name.
Contra
They began experimenting with different genres and instruments for their next album,
Contra. It alternates between poppier songs and slower, more somber songs, with less cryptic lyrics than its predecessor. This is also the point where the band’s songs began to gain a sadder tone, with songs such as “I Think Ur A Contra”, and
Lyrical Dissonance, with “California English”, which is probably the fastest, most jittery song on the album, and has lyrics about things such as “losing faith in the good earth”.
Modern Vampires Of The City
The upbeat-ness of their early albums has been almost all but lost here. This one is the most analysis-heavy because it’s a
Concept Album with generally
deeper/heavier topics than VW and
Contra, exploring religious themes (“Unbelievers“), relationships (“Step”, “Everlasting Arms”) and the topic of death (“Diane Young”, “Don’t Lie”).
Lyrical Dissonance is used a lot on the album, in the form of dark lyrics about fear of the passage of time and dying prematurely set to slow harpsichord pieces (“Don’t Lie”) or fast, happy-sounding ones about conflict (“Finger Back”- any kind the listener interprets it as).
FOTB
The most recent (as of writing this) album
Father Of The Bride is essentially a poppier version of MVOC. The religious imagery is maintained, but this time with topics of nature and climate change. “Harmony Hall” reusing “I don’t wanna live like this, but I don’t wanna die” in a less dark context, along with cities potentially bringing up pollution by association compared to the environmental themes of this album make FOTB even more of a contrast to MVOC.
