My Favorite Album of 2019

Welcome Back, Vampire Weekend!

Father of the Bride by Vampire Weekend is my favorite album of 2019. Yes, I’m calling it early. No, nothing will change my mind. Well, Dead Man’s Pop would, but that is a reissue, so I’m sticking with my choice. (More to come on Dead Man’s Pop in the future.)

Their last album was six years ago, and in the meantime the lost their one of their key players when Rostam Batmanglij decided to venture out on his own. Six years is an eternity in the music world. Rostam was a vital part of the songwriting process. Finally, Modern Vampires of the City was a fantastic album…one that would be hard to top.

I’ve always really like Vampire Weekend. However, they have never gotten into my soul the way Jason Isbell, Sufjan Stevens, and the Replacements have.

For these reasons, I went into the album with low expectations.

If the bar had been high, they would have reached it.

And this album, well, it’s a part of me now.

My Review

The first notes of Father of the Bride show that Ezra Koenig knew where he wanted this band to go. The title track is a country song about a guy making one last plea to a girl who is about to marry someone else. It was simple and elegant, even if it features music from The Killing Fields. The song also features Danielle Haim from Haim, and she serves as the albums secret weapon throughout. I’ve never actually warmed up to Haim before, but on this song and all the songs she is featured on, her voice meshes perfectly with Ezra. When he is light, she is often moody and vice versa. If an album is an extended essay, the first song is the thesis statement and Vampire Weekend nails it.

One of my favorite albums of 2018 was Kacey Musgraves Golden Hour. Well, Ezra was listening to and took note of how direct her songs were and applied them to this album. Songs like “This Life,” “Married in a Gold Rush,” “We Belong Together,” and “Stranger” are beautiful and straightforward. More than one of these songs wouldn’t sound out of place on country radio if any country artist covered it.

Even if the songs are more straightforward, that doesn’t mean they aren’t smart. “Harmony Hall” and “This Life,” and hopeful sounds cover a wave of righteous anger at how the world is going. “2021” is even more direct wanting a new start in January of that year. “Jerusalem, New York, Berlin,” the album’s closer, is a masterclass in writing about identity.

However, nothing prepared me for the pure rush of “Sympathy.” Double bass drums and a flamenco guitar, stretch Vampire Weekend in directions their take on world music hasn’t even gone. Here the music makes you dance more than any other Vampire Weekend song does while Mr. Koeing’s lyrics discuss how certain groups use the Jewish identity in their seeking “triumph for their will.” Anyone with a working knowledge of Nazi history knows he is not pulling any punches.

Why this is my favorite album of 2019

Through all the anger that is on this album (about politics, the environment, identity), optimism shines through. One of the reasons why I think I identify with this album so much is that Mr. Koening became a father not much longer after I did.

We might not like where the world is heading, but we still believe we can make the world a better place for our little ones.