there are songs I don’t like, but overall consistent and smart and good, and Father of the Bride is excellent
RELISTEN1: just really consistently fantastic, MVotC only keeps growing on me, Contra maybe, VW eh maybe. Songs are good, lyrics are good, themes are good, band is good. So many songs that are bangers and also resonate with me on a deeper level
RELISTEN2: their first album all around always has felt… amateurish? Incomplete? It’s not bad, but it’s definitely step one. There are a couple songs I do love in it, and then a lot more that are just alright. Contra is solid, not my favorite ever but it’s got some good songs and works together well. Modern Vampires of the City is great, I definitely like this one more the more I listen to it. And it’s got some of my all time favorite Vampire Weekend songs— Unbelievers, Ya Hey, Finger Back, all awesome awesome songs. And man oh man, Father of the Bride. I love it, it’s so good. The first half is just song after song after song that I adore, it has some of my all time favorite songs, it has most of my favorite Vampire Weekend songs, I think it works great as an album. I just really really like it a lot. Only God Was Above Us still hasn’t had time to grow on me at all yet. I’ve only listened to each of its songs 3ish times, most of the parts of Vampire Weekend I have big love for have taken a lot longer than that to develop. I still think it’s a pretty solid album, I’m just not at all attached to it yet
Put that all together and there’s an awesome arc that Vampire Weekend follows. They start alright, but where I can easily see the potential. Then as time goes on, they just keep getting better and better. And, as time goes on the more I listen to them, the more I like them. I think that where I’m at right now, I have a strong love and appreciation for them, and there are real strong points in their music that I adore, but they aren’t consistently at that point enough for the S range. I think it’s possible that Only God Was Above Us grows on me, in which case the development of the band over time into a present state I love would do it, but that just hasn’t happened yet. At the A+ they’ll stay a while yet
tunafruitsandwitch 