Modern Vampires of the City

Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
Critic Score
Based on 45 reviews
2013 Ratings: #74 / 1115
Year End Rank: #2
User Score
2013 Rank: #17
Liked by 383 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
AllMusic

Ultimately, Modern Vampires of the City is more thoughtful than it is dark, balancing its more serious moments with a lighter touch and more confidence than they've shown before.

100
A.V. Club

Unlike its two predecessors, which burned hot but only in spots, Modern Vampires feels like a rare thought-through album in the iTunes age. 

100
Pretty Much Amazing

At this point, if you’re still hating on this band, you’re either trolling or just not listening. So listen. Don’t wait. 

93
Pitchfork

After years of engaging with anything and everything in reach, Vampire Weekend are now a primary source in their own right.

91
Entertainment Weekly

Modern Vampires is the perfect album for the coming Atlantic summer. Think of it like saltwater taffy: bright and sweet, with plenty to chew on.

90
Drowned in Sound

Modern Vampires Of The City (bloomin’ marvelous title, FYI) overshadows such petty concerns by simply being immaculate, beautifully balanced and enthralling pop music.

90
Slant Magazine

The songs may be dense and literary, but they're also immediately potent on a purely visceral level, striking a perfect balance that makes for what's perhaps the best album in a year already thick with great material.

90
Rolling Stone

Vampire Weekend have gotten better at just about everything they do.

90
Billboard

On "Modern Vampires," there's no reaching for the elusive crossover hit, no beating listeners over the head with overdone choruses -- just quality music, which, so far, has worked out just fine.

90
Clash

‘Modern Vampires Of The City’ conveys one hell of a sense of permanence from a band that once seemed ephemeral and frivolous.

90
Uncut
If in the past you’ve admired Vampire Weekend from a distance, this is the album that should have you falling in love with them.
90
DIY

What makes this album is that they haven’t forgotten to match this intellect and emotion with giddy, unabashed fun and mile-wide smiling.

90
Consequence of Sound

It’s content to expound upon the Vampire Weekend aesthetic in inventive, imaginative, and undeniably successful ways.

90
No Ripcord

Modern Vampires of the City is nothing short of a pop music achievement, a standout album in a year full of standout albums. 

90
Spectrum Culture

While these heavy topics might make the new VW record sound like a dry philosophical treatise, rest assured, it is not. The band tackles these deep themes with their characteristic light touch.

87
Paste

It may not meet the high standards of Contra, but these new songs come pretty close, which is no small feat. And they may even convert a few non-believers along the way.

85
Beats Per Minute

Modern Vampires of the City finds the band in both familiar and unfamiliar territory, and it’s pure pleasure hearing them navigate these waters.

80
The Observer

Their erudition, musical and lyrical, remains a pleasure, but what convinces on Modern Vampires are their beating hearts.

80
NOW Magazine

Nothing seems off-limits, and yet it gels, thanks in part to constant melodic inventiveness and singer Ezra Koenig's refreshingly nerdy wordplay, which at times is as intricate and descriptive as hip-hop and elsewhere simple and tantalizingly elusive.

80
Mojo
Here and elsewhere, Vampire Weekend's growing self-assurance serves the needs of the song without playing to their perceived strengths.
80
The Guardian
Vampire Weekend suddenly sound like a band in it for the long haul.
80
Q Magazine
Those who think that somewhere, a liberal arts college is missing its creative writing teachers, might not be surprised this is a clever record. It's also, however, one that glows with tangible human warmth, heartbeat never failing to keep pace with its brainwaves.
80
Exclaim!

The album is both more mature and personal than anything they've done previously, providing a ruminative, thoughtful take on love and death seen through the prism of temporality

80
American Songwriter

It’s time to start thinking of Vampire Weekend not as upstarts but as one of the world’s best bands

80
musicOMH

On their third full-length, Modern Vampires Of The City, Vampire Weekend feel like a band in transition, dealing with their own mortality, and looking to trade in their sun-bleached, pigeonholed world-pop for something with teeth.

80
FACT Magazine

This album is as life-affirming a piece of music as anything else you’ll hear this year: there’s nothing more uplifting than a good band getting better.

80
PopMatters

Unlike Vampire Weekend and Contra, there is a less of an emphasis on inventive takes of differing genres. The group here instead aims at a core style—best described as “old with the new”—that spins off in divergent directions.

80
SPIN

Like art, Vampires is dense; like pop, it seems to float in effortlessly from some place you're sure you've been, but by some trick of déjà vu eludes your conscious brain.

75
The 405

Whilst it isn't the sound of a band who have shed their skin or exposed a dark underbelly, Modern Vampires Of The City is perhaps their most accomplished profusion of hooks to date.

72
Northern Transmissions

The different use of instrument and percussion in Modern Vampires Of The City give Vampire Weekend a striking sound, different from many of their contemporaries. Yep, they’re still ahead of the game.

70
FasterLouder

The record’s better executed moments (‘Unbelievers’, ‘Ya Hey’) are widescreen and epic; adjectives one would never have associated with Vampire Weekend’s first two albums

70
The Line of Best Fit

Koenig is engaged with the world in a serious way that doesn’t preclude fun or playfulness. And even as the band’s sound has evolved, the music remains immaculately crafted and distinctively its own. 

70
The Fly

Though ‘Modern Vampires Of The City’ is flawed – there’s no stand-out single, and the low-key ‘Obvious Bicycle’ is far too sombre to justify its billing as the opening track – repeat listens to this third act are rewarded.

70
The Needle Drop

Vampire Weekend's latest album is a worth sequel to 2010's Contra, presenting songs that truly stand on the merits of their memorable writing and lush instrumentation.

70
NME

This is a gorgeous album, but sacrifices had to be made. They’ve undeniably lost something that made them special in the first place.

65
Under the Radar

Modern Vampires of the City contains something no other Vampire Weekend album has—boring songs. Trilogies don't often end well, and while there's more good than bad, it's still disappointing when listeners know what could have been. 

60
Tiny Mix Tapes

It’s safe to say that, at this point, what Vampire Weekend has to say with Modern Vampires of the City is relevant and tired all the same. It’s an honest delivery, but they are essentially preaching to the choir.

60
Record Collector

While MVOTC doesn’t represent a seismic leap from their earlier material, the general feeling is of a much more considered collection, with greater emphasis on song craft.

60
The Independent

Experimentation is generally to be applauded, but too often here it works to the detriment of the songs.

50
Sputnikmusic

It’s really too bad, then, that Modern Vampires couldn’t have been a more interesting--or easily definable--failure. As it stands, it’s just another Vampire Weekend album, except the songs are less catchy and more sterile this time around.

20
Alternative Press
In the end, Modern Vampires just seems to fade into a dull glow that will still be overshadowed by the band's explosive self-titled debut.
Bobby792003
92

Ever since their inception, Vampire Weekend has been the subject of both widespread acclaim and mass criticism. Both the self-titled and ‘Contra’ were successes, and one of their singles, “A-Punk”, became one of the hottest tracks of the late 2000s. However, some critics perceived Vampire Weekend “as privileged, upper-class Ivy League graduates”. Whether this was inspiration or not, the band released ‘Modern Vampires of the City’, an album that ... read more

barcooper
80

I was expecting a Carti feature but oh well ):

This was my introduction to one of the most unique and beloved indie acts of the last decade Vampire Weekend. When I heard this album a couple of months ago it was a bit of a mixed bag for me. And returning back to it, Although I'm still not the biggest fan of it, It has grown on me quite a bit, And I find way more value in it than I initially found.

One thing I do admire a lot about this album and the band, Is their ambition and ... read more

UltimateLifeFrm
80

Shoutout to @kikooooo for the suggestion! Also, happy birthday to you dude. Hope it's a great one!

I've been aware of Vampire Weekend, but only knew them because of their album covers as well as their iconic late 2000s hit "A-Punk", which would've been used in the British comedy series The Inbetweeners along with many others.

It's surprising how I've never heard a full project, let alone heard any other song from them so this'll be pretty fun to check out since I do like indie rock ... read more

HalfsourDyl
59

Every handful of years, I try to get into this album and it never happens.

larkwashere
65

the best thing ever released by vampire weekend

edit: okay okay i'm sorry, hannah hunt is one of my favorite songs of oat but i can't love this album with this much inconsistency

z0uNq
88

This grew a lot on me

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Track List

1Obvious Bicycle
4:11
89
2Unbelievers
3:22
92
3Step
4:11
93
4Diane Young
2:40
91
5Don't Lie
3:33
87
6Hannah Hunt
3:57
92
7Everlasting Arms
3:03
86
8Finger Back
3:25
85
9Worship You
3:21
85
10Ya Hey
5:12
86
11Hudson
4:14
83
12Young Lion
1:45
82
Total Length: 43 minutes
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Added on: February 4, 2013