Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride review

Vampire Weekend- Father of the Bride Review

Score: 4 stars

 Ezra Koenig and co. bring the long-awaited fourth album with a vast departure from the Vampire Weekend of old but still contains fragments from their previous albums.

So, its been six years since Vampire Weekend's last album, Modern Vampires of the City was released, and now they are back and better than ever with their impressive fourth album, entitled Father of the Bride. A lot has happened since their third album was released, longtime member Rostam Batamanglij left the band, Ezra Koenig had a child with Parks And Recreation star Rashida Jones. As for Vampire Weekend, they have introduced a whole new host of touring members to make up for Rostam's departure. 

There was a lot of doubt over whether Koenig, bassist Chris Baio and drummer Chris Tomson could even bring the band back after Batamanglij left in 2016, never mind release a new album, but they have more than proved those doubters wrong with Father of the Bride. With a whopping 18 tracks, they have provided an album that not only shows the band's evolution, but also shows that they have managed to recapture the essence of Vampire Weekend that they may have lost at some point.

While 18 tracks may seem like a lot from the outside, the band manages to make it work, for example with tracks like Bambina and Big Blue which both run just under 2 minutes, makes the album seem less big and more seamless as it doesn't feel like you are listening to an 18-track album. There are also many different styles that Ezra experiments with on this record, somewhat country songs like Married in a Gold Rush and the 90's Primal Scream type piano sounds in Harmony Hall.

Another thing the album does well is the collaborations as none of them feel forced in the slightest and they all fit in well on the album. An example of this would be the three tracks with Haim frontwoman Danielle Haim which almost creates an underlying narrative that flows throughout the record along with collaborations with The Internet's Steve Lacy on the songs Sunflower and Flower Moon which feel like short bursts of energy that may be needed to make up for some of the slower songs on the album. Also, Rostam does produce some of the songs on the album and that shows in songs like Harmony Hall and We Belong Together which capture the formula that got Vampire Weekend to where they are now.

This album keeps the essence that made Vampire Weekend popular, while also experimenting with new styles that will no doubt take the band to new heights. The future's looking very bright for Ezra Koenig and Vampire Weekend if they continue on the path they are going.