discovered on a Sunday

okay, so i shall make a list of my 5 favorite albums of this year. it's really been an exciting musical year. some albums came as positive surprises, some became disappointments (franz ferdinand and yuck i hope you're reading this). even debut albums are going to make it onto my list here, so it's really been an unpredictable year and i hope you enjoy this journey. 

5

for my number 5 of 2013, i chose Vampire Weekend's third studio album titled Modern Vampires of the City. to be honest with you all, i really wasn't expecting much from this album (this was one of the positive surprises). i enjoyed their first album - sometimes i'd give it a listen and it didn't bother me, in places i would nod my head and smile a little. but Contra was just a disappointment. so i thought it was all downhill from here and i didn't have much faith in this album. but, as you can see, it is on my top5 list. let me explain why:

i always considered VW to be this jumpy smiley indie band, which i didn't consider to be bad, but i'm just not that kind of guy. but this album, while continuing to sound like VW, also has very mellow and sad parts to it. i felt that this new direction that Ezra and co took was just so fresh and much needed. i think it was exactly what VW fans were needing at this point. songs like Hudson and Ya Hey are why this album is on this list. the percussion section is just masterful throughout the whole album, while mellow pianos and synths are also quite prevalent as the album goes on, only adding to its mood. i'm not sure Ezra was at any point a very deep lyricist, and this album just proves that (unless of course, Ezra is so deep that we don't understand what he's trying to send across / Ezra doesn't want us to know what he's singing about). anyways, i really recommend a listen. 

love, b.