Vampire Weekend, the quartet famed for their Columbia diplomas and for their distinctive blend of Afro-pop and twee sensibilities, delighted legions of fans earlier this week with the release of two previously unheard tracks from their forthcoming album Modern Vampires of the City, which is due out on May 7.
The pair of songs, entitled "Step" and "Diane Young," follows "Unbelievers" as the second and third tracks to be released from Modern Vampires of the City. The band debuted "Unbelievers" while wearing Day of the Dead-inspired face makeup on the Halloween episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live" last October.
Featuring frenzied keys, a string section and vocals from frontman Ezra Koenig and keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij, "Unbelievers" seems to be pretty standard Vampire Weekend fare – which is by no means a complaint. The fact that the song doesn't necessarily stray from what listeners have come to expect from the band only draws more attention to how fresh "Step" and "Diane Young" are.
From the opening of "Step," which features a vocal sample from the track "Step to My Girl" by the 1990s rap group Souls of Mischief, there's a marked departure from Vampire Weekend's earlier style. References to hip-hop aren't necessarily new for the band (remember Koenig's shout out to the rapper Lil Jon's song "Get Low" in "Oxford Comma?"), but the tune of "Step" is actually a re-orchestration of the sax line in the back of "Step to My Girl."
But instead of appearing as a cheap musical ploy – as it easily could have in the hands of less mature or talented musicians – this specific reference becomes a poignant aspect of the narrative Koenig describes in "Step." He sings about listening to "tapes from L.A. / Slash San Francisco / But actually Oakland," which was the home of Souls of Mischief. The sample of "Step to My Girl" functions, therefore, as a compelling narrative layer of the story Koenig is telling about a younger version of himself, inserting the listener into the consciousness of the character being described in the song.
As it displays Vampire Weekend's maturation as musicians and storytellers, "Step" is itself a reflection on the process of personal, emotional and intellectual maturation. It's a topic the band has visited before – most memorably in "Giving Up the Gun" (from the album Contra) – but never with the level of sincerity and emotional directness present in "Step." Koenig questions the relationship between aging and wisdom, with each chorus beginning "The gloves are off / The wisdom teeth are out." In the song's finest verse, he muses "Wisdom's a gift but you'd trade it for youth / Age is an honor – it's still not the truth" and continues, "Everyone's dying but girl – you're not old yet."
This exploration of aging persists in "Diane Young" – quite obviously, considering the title is a play on the phrase "dying young." Near the song's end, Koenig cries, "Nobody knows what the future holds / It's bad enough just getting old," and he remarks earlier that the person he's addressing has "the luck of a Kennedy." "Diane Young" is as frantic as "Step" is smoothly-controlled, with a passage of manic keys and screamed vocals that recalls the climax of "Walcott" from the band's debut album.
There's sure to be much speculation about this new album's remaining nine unheard tracks in the months leading up the release of Modern Vampires of the City but based on what has been released thus far, fans should expect doses of the classic Vampire Weekend sound as well as plenty of innovative material to provide the soundtrack for this summer.
– By Logan Lockner
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