They're finally here: the first new Vampire Weekend songs in five years. After some light teasing, the band announced their Father Of The Bride follow-up Only God Was Above Us last week. Now we get to hear two songs from the 10-song album — a full 20% of the tracklist. Both songs have music videos built around footage of New York circa 1988 by Steven Siegel, the photographer who shot the Only God Was Above Us album art.
"Capricorn" is a wistful ballad in the same vein as "Step," building from a string-laden acoustic sway to some supremely gnarly distorted keyboard chords. "Capricorn/ The year that you were born/ Finished fast/ And the next one wasn’t yours," Ezra Koenig sings on the chorus. "Too old for dying young/ Too young to live alone/ Sifting through centuries/ For moments of your own." Koenig and Ariel Rechtshaid wrote and produced this one together. Nick Harwood, longtime Vampire Weekend creative director, directed the "Capricorn" video. The band shows up at the end.
"Gen-X Cops," named for Benny Chan's 1999 Hong Kong action crime comedy, is much more upbeat. A high-pitched, Pixies-esque overdriven guitar wiggles and wails its way through this one. Most of the lyrics here are pretty quotable, but here's one: "Dodged the draft but can’t dodge the war/ Forever cursed to live insecure/ The curtain drops/ A gang of Gen-X cops assembles/ Trembling before our human nature." Koenig and drummer Chris Tomson cowrote this one, and they produced it together with Ariel Rechtshaid.
The "Gen-X Cops" video was directed by Drew Pearce. It uses the exact film stocks Siegel used in 1988 and films the band in an authentic 1970s New York subway car, seamlessly mixing the new imagery in with Siegel's footage. Pearce and director of photography Doug Emmett even researched the light patterns of 1980s subway tunnels to build a rig that would emulate them while shooting the video.
One last thing: Vampire Weekend have also announced extensive North American tour dates. They've got a wide range of openers lined up, including La Lom, the English Beat, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Mike Gordon, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, Ra Ra Riot, Princess, Cults, Mark Ronson (doing a DJ set), the Brothers Macklovich (A-Trak and Chromeo's Dave 1), and Turnstiles. No, that last one is not a typo; rather than the Baltimore hardcore superstars, it's a Billy Joel tribute act.
Watch both videos below, where you can also find Vampire Weekend's tour itinerary.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=8lCmyFCj580https://youtube.com/watch?v=kW9Qk00693c /wp:paragraph -->
