When I was 16 and 17 I first made contact with Vampire Weekend. My friend had showed my their track ‘Diane Young’ and I was immediately hooked. They had three albums out at the time: ‘Vampire Weekend’, ‘Contra’ and ‘Modern Vampires of the City’. Their blend of electronic sounds, earthy percussion, intricate melodies and sometimes baffling lyrics had me hooked and I would listen to some their songs over and over again. So when I saw that they had released a couple of new tracks I became maybe a little overly excited.
The track I’m going to talk about is ‘Harmony Hall’ and it opens with a rippling, full bodied guitar lick. I was a little surprised at this as it doesn’t exactly scream vintage ‘Vampire Weekend’ but I enjoyed it none the less. Needless to say, my concerns were quickly put aside as the lyrics came in bringing with them a brilliant, clean melody. The pre-chorus in particular caught my attention:
“Anger wants a voice, voices wanna sing
Singers harmonize ’til they can’t hear anything
I thought that I was free from all the questionin’
But every time a problem ends, another one begins”
Not only does this section carry a beautiful melody, the harmony on “’til they can’t hear anything” is noteworthy and appropriate, it also contains excellently phrased and thought provoking lyrics. The first two lines in particular contain a lot of information in a very efficient, compact manner. The first line sets up the premise that people will always want to voice their opinions, particularly those which disagree with what they see in the world. However the second line brings in an interesting thought that when they voices come together they often drown one another out. I think that this idea is even more interesting when we consider the idea that these singers “harmonize” rather than there being dissonance between them. This to me suggests that the singers in question are agreeing with one another and through this agreement actually block out anything contrary to their beliefs.
This idea is compounded on in the chorus by the term ‘Harmony Hall’ which could be taken to mean an echo chamber. The chorus opens up the texture of the track and creates some tension moving into the post-chorus which reiterates the chorus’ final line:
“I don’t want to live like this, but I don’t want to die”
This just screams Vampire Weekend to me and I love the overall texture, melody and feeling at this point in the song. From this point the songs goes on to develop the musical ideas it has already established, adding new ideas along the way but it finely establishes this balance, sometimes thinning the texture to make sure that the fine melodies aren’t overwhelmed. It returns the gentle, ripping guitar to bring the song full circle creating a track that I think is really special.
Apparently this is the precursor to a new album coming from Vampire Weekend and if this song is anything to go off then I am very excited. It’s been a bit of a wait, six years in fact, and based off this track we might be looking at a more mature, well developed band. If this is the case I hope that they don’t lose the authenticity and charm that their earlier songs had but instead it brings more maturity and more well rounded songs. Either way, I’m extremely excited to hear more as I’m sure Vampire Weekend will take me back to that point in my life through their unique sound.
Rob's Music Review 