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Top 25 Songs and Films of 2013: (15-6)

For an explanation of the WAR value next to each song and movie, see the previous post, my Top 25 Songs and Films of 2013 (25-16) or click here, https://thepunissure.com/2014/01/13/top-25-songs-and-films-of-2013-25-16-with-a-nod-to-mlbs-war-system/

Here are my Top 25 Songs and Films of 2013 (15-6):

15. Kings of Leon – Supersoaker (WAR value: 7.0)

It’s not just that I wasn’t over the moon for “Supersoaker” when I first heard it, I really didn’t like it. I thought it was an odd choice for a lead single — the wrong choice. Man alive was I misguided. I think I changed my mind sometime after I’d heard the track for the tenth time. Its wonder and greatness unfurled to me like a flower exposing itself to the warmth of spring. It was a risky but brilliant choice as a lead single. It sounds modern yet classic. Caleb Followill’s vocal is fantastic. The production is flawless. And the line, “I don’t mind, sentimental girls, sometimes…” kills. “Supersoaker” is far and away the best song on their latest LP, Mechanical Bull, and one of the best songs they’ve ever done.

The Conjuring (WAR value: 5.0)

The Conjuring was legitimately frightening with twists and turns aplenty. The rare horror film that’s scary yet fun to watch. An impressive directorial effort by James Wan, who used a game cast to delicious effect.

14. The 1975 – Sex/The City (WAR value: 7.3)

Sex:

I prefer this original version to the newer, slightly massaged version. There’s something a little more free about this one. It breathes better. “Sex” is rife with passion. It’s desperate, uncomfortable, energetic, and it sounds so bloody good. It sounds undeniably of the present. It seems like the musical hooks number in the thousands, and even still, there are more. I haven’t seen this band live yet, but I’m willing to bet a large sum that the line “she’s got a boyfriend anyway” is sung with rapturous vitality at their shows. “Sex” announced that The 1975 are interested in filling arenas in the near future.

The City:

Where I prefer the less polished, original version of “Sex”, I prefer this, the more polished, newer version of “The City”. The mix of kick-drum-heard-on-the-moon, electric guitar plucking and pulsating, and shoe-gaze synthesizers is a titanic combination. Many other bands are employing this type of sound, but almost no others make it sound as good as The 1975. I also love how the lyric in the chorus can be heard as “the city is” or “insidious” depending on what you want to hear. Neat trick. This band is up to some really big things.

Pain and Gain (WAR value: 5.1)

Here is where I retract my earlier statement about Michael Bay. Sure, he can make bloated films that seem to coast by on action-by-numbers, things breaking, blowing up, and the like. Pain and Gain has some of that, but it’s also extremely enjoyable. Mark Wahlberg was game as the lead in this take on the pursuit of the (Performance Enhancing Drugged Up) American Dream. But by far, I enjoyed this movie most because of The Rock. Dwayne Johnson’s absolutely hilarious. I didn’t know he had this kind of performance in him. He was a riot for much of the film, at turns being loony, irrational, paranoid, and unpredictable. For me, it’s his finest acting job to date. Pain and Gain is preposterous, trashy, silly, stupid, but so damned fun.

Song-wise, I’d say the following tunes are in an echelon above everything else this past year. These are special songs…

13. Neko Case – Local Girl (WAR value: 8.0)

From time to time, I’ll mention how a band or artist sounds unique, because of their voice, lyrics, or sound. With Neko Case, I couldn’t mean the sentiment more, and it’s all of the above. No one in the world has a voice like hers, so clean, so full of force and power. Her voice sounds like a mountain having a conversation with the wind, repeated to the plains and sung for the animals. Her lyrics are one-of-a-kind, considered, literate, creative, and heart-rattling. And her sound is just as rare, an ode to the alt/country/pop of yore. The melody in “Local Girl” is absolutely, positively, stunning. Neko soars here in every way imaginable. It’s my favourite song from her of-course-it-is brilliant(ly titled) album, The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You. Neko Case is a throwback. I couldn’t be more firm in my resolve when I say I love her as an artist: her voice, music, intelligence, and creativity. For me, it’ll always be Neko Case and then everyone else.

This Is The End (WAR value: 5.4)

This Is The End is a tonne of fun. Seeing the stellar cast play caricatures of themselves was delightful. James Franco and Seth Rogen were on point. Michael Cera was a riot. And Jonah Hill was really good too — spoiler alert — particularly in the bust-a-gut-funny scene where he’s possessed and is tied to a bed.

12. Blue October – Sway/Bleed Out (WAR value: 8.1)

I feel close to Blue October. From the first time I heard “Hate Me”, I fell for lead singer Justin Furstenfeld’s passionate delivery and way with melody. The band hasn’t garnered the attention they deserve since that first big hit. They’re still pumping out mammoth, great-sounding, emotionally resonating alt-rock songs though, with “Sway” and “Bleed Out” being two gargantuan efforts. Both tunes contain hooks galore. They induce shivers. They tug at heartstrings. They’re beautiful songs. I can’t say enough how much I dig Blue October, and how much I love these two spectacular, emotionally invigorating songs.

Sway:

Bleed Out:

The Hobbit – The Desolation of Smaug (WAR value: 5.7)

This movie looked spectacular, particularly the dwarves’ escape from elven captivity into the river. The Hobbit is one of my all-time favourite books, so I was trusting, wide-eyed and receptive to how Peter Jackson and company would visualize Tolkien’s seminal tome. Jackson did it justice, inasmuch as a movie can do a book justice. I was immersed in the world — yet again — and can’t wait to see how things wrap up in the final instalment.

11. Chvrches – Recover/Now Is Not The Time/Lies (WAR value: 8.3)

All three of these songs, “Recover”, “Now Is Not The Time”, and “Lies” are perfect, pristine pop songs. It’s the construction, the delivery, the sum of the sounds. Everything is bang on. I bet Chvrches were meticulous in crafting these songs. It sounds like no detail was left unconsidered. Sometimes this can make a song bland or robotic. Not here. These songs are brimming with organic life and freshness. What stunned me most was that Chvrches kept dropping hit after hit after hit. I was flabbergasted. It didn’t make sense that any band or artist could be that prolific, especially a new band like Chvrches. But after “Lies” and “The Mother We Share” came “Recover”, after which came “Now Is Not The Time”. At that point, I was seriously shocked. It wasn’t possible that a band’s first four songs could be that good. But it was happening. Then, came “Gun”, which is also fantastic, and a few months later, their debut album, The Bones Of What You Believe finally arrived. Then we were given more(!) bangers, “Lungs” and “Tether” leading the way. I’m still perplexed by how this came to be. Chvrches are the best new band I’ve heard since Future Islands. Their way with synth-pop — in an absurdly crowded field — is utterly unique, an immaculate amalgam of the past with an uncompromising and unrepeatable take on the present and future.

Recover:

Now Is Not The Time:

Lies:

American Hustle (WAR value: 5.8)

I enjoyed American Hustle, and I will admit that it’s, in many ways (the acting, direction, and story), an excellent film, but something’s holding me back from liking it more. The only thing I can come up is that the leads, though acted superbly, are tough to root for. When I watched it, I didn’t feel like I had a “dog in the race” so to speak. I sat down to watch it, and it experienced it without ever really pulling for anyone to come out on top. Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper were particularly good here, but they were better, and so much more likeable, in Silver Linings Playbook. I’d like to give it some time, watch it a second time to see if I still feel the same way.

10. The Boxer Rebellion – Diamonds (WAR value: 8.6)

The Boxer Rebellion don’t get enough credit. They had two dazzling songs a few years back, “Evacuate” and “Semi-Automatic”, though unfortunately, the band didn’t explode like they should have. In 2013, they came back with what’s probably the best song they’ve ever done in “Diamonds”. I was obsessed with the song for weeks and weeks. It’s the overwhelmingly sad way Nathan Nicholson delivers the vocal. It’s the opposing force of nature that is the music, shimmering guitars buoyed by steady drumming and subtle synth underpinnings. It’s the rise and fall, the simplicity of the lyrics, the drifting away, from blame, from anger, not necessarily to a place of peace, but to a place that’s just away. “Diamonds” speaks to the futility of one person’s attempt to keep a relationship from being gobbled up by expectations of progress, and literally, that sparkling signifier of a gem. Ironic, as this song is undoubtedly one of the precious jewels of 2013.

Spring Breakers (WAR value: 6.0)

All-in-all, Spring Breakers is a good movie. It’s occasionally funny and unabashedly youthful, in its confusion, energy, and wildness. The four lead girls were decent. Make no mistake though, this movie’s carried by James Franco. It looks like he had a blast playing Alien (Riff Raff, if you’d believe Riff Raff), and that was undeniably infectious. It’s my favourite James Franco performance to date, and his strangest. The Alien-singing-Britney scene is one of my favourite movie scenes of the past few years. It’s demented, sweet, frivolous, impetuous, and absurd. And it’s why Spring Break will last forever, y’all.

9. The Knife – Full of Fire (WAR value: 8.8)

“Full of Fire” is a monstrous concoction of political intent, industrial sound-sculpting, and electronic imagination. It’s a frenzy of pulse, weaponry, and skill. It’s a nine-minute tour de force in bad-assery. Karin and Olof have never sounded so vital, so in control, so angry. Shaking The Habitual, from whence “Full of Fire” comes, is a dense affair, with not nearly the amount of hooks as The Knife’s last album proper, Silent Shout. There are a few outstanding tracks, and also a 19-minute track where The Knife do everything possible to lose your interest. They’re not fighting for you to listen. That commitment is up to you. They’re way past that, fighting for something much, much bigger. The album, and “Full of Fire” as its solider in the foreground, is a left-field effort from the maybe the most left-field band on the planet. “Full of Fire” is indeed burning, and full of so much more than heat.

World War Z (WAR value: 6.1)

World War Z is reminiscent of Book of Eli and I Am Legend, but more fun than the former, and waaaay more interesting than the latter. It’s Contagion with more intrigue and more of a rooting interest. I was gripped the entire way.

8. Drake – Hold On, We’re Going Home (WAR value: 9.0)

By far, the catchiest song Drake’s ever done. It’ll be on playlists from here to eternity, which is what Drake and producer Majid Jordan had intended. Everyone intends to do something like that. Everyone would love to be a part of a song this special. It’s just such a rarity to connect on that intention. What makes the situation even more amazing is that the beat and vocal seem so effortlessly constructed and delivered. “Hold On, We’re Going Home” is a monumental pop song. (I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention part of the appeal is the subtle ode to Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner”, particularly the “duh-dah-duh-da’s.” Here’s the link to that song if you’d like to compare: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-26hsZqwveA)

Star Trek: Into Darkness (WAR value: 6.6)

Benedict Cumberbatch is a bad, bad man. I loved so much about this film: how it looked, how the plot aligned, how it was acted. I quite enjoyed the first instalment of JJ Abrams’ reboot, but this one is warp speed beyond that one. The franchise has a great cast: Pine, Quinto, Soldana, Urban, Pegg, Cho, and Yelchin. I can’t wait to see what the next offering has up its sleeve.

7. Sky Ferreira – You’re Not The One/Heavy Metal Heart (WAR value: 9.2)

While a million-plus-one pop tarts do their tired take on dance-pop, Ferreira’s forked off and brought the rock back in pop-rock. Her sensational debut LP, My Time, Night Time, is a loud, pulsating, sexed up affair with nary a filler tune to be found. I was blown away when I first heard “You’re Not The One”. The guitar riff centres the song, simple but out-of-this world catchy. Ariel Rechtshaid’s production is flawless. When I first heard the entire album, I was floored by how consistent and immediate it was. I was hoping for the best, but sure there wouldn’t be anything to match the brilliance of the lead single. I was wrong. “Heavy Metal Heart” is a beast. Avril Lavigne can’t even dream of a song this good. Gaga would have a massive hit on her hands if this were on Artpop. The reality is, no one else has “Heavy Metal Heart” but Sky Ferreira. Even though she’s a relatively new artist, the song is invariably hers. “You make my heavy metal heart beat” is sung with such gusto, such energy, that you’d swear Ferreira’s heart is made of long, bleach-blonde hair, black leather, and power chords. Maybe it is. I wouldn’t rule anything out with this one.

You’re Not The One:

Heavy Metal Heart:

Anchorman 2 (WAR value: 6.9)

I loved this sequel. For as silly as some of the jokes might’ve been, I always got the sense that Ferrell and company were meticulous in choosing to keep the best ones. I loved David Koechner (Champ Kind). I loved chicken of the cave, even though I’ve never tried it. I loved how the team would occasionally beat jokes to death. The cameos were a lot of fun. I think it’s really tough to be consistently funny nowadays, and Ferrell, Adam McKay, et al have accomplished that here. I’d be more than down for a third instalment (although Ferrell, please do a Step Brothers sequel first, thanks).

6. Haerts – Wings (WAR value: 9.4)

I adore the funk out of this song. It was on heavy rotation from the first time I heard it. It screams 80’s. It’s right now. It’ll be around for a looooong time. It’s not simply that Nini Fabi’s vocal soars, it’s the palpable feeling of joy in being able to fly for the first time. It’s growing wings and lifting, dipping, ascending, cruising, feeling the wind course through your hair like it never has before, like it was never able to before. There is wonder in this experience. There is release. “Wings” is perfect from the first second, but if it wasn’t already so, it somehow gets even better at 3:44, when the music starts to shuffle, and birds can be seen in the distance, flying together, singing and dancing.

Side Effects (WAR value: 7.2)

If this had been released later in the year, the buzz around it would’ve been much larger. I loved the plot and the acting. There were a tonne of twists and turns, and the story is filled with deception, decoys, and ploys. It’s a meditation on the sad state of mass addiction to pharmaceuticals and the damning, horrifying prescribing of modern “medicine,” not to cure, remedy, or build health, but to suppress and sustain dependency. I liked each of the leads’ performance, but in particular, I thought Rooney Mara was fantastic. Steven Soderbergh has had a great run the past couple years and Side Effects is the best of a stellar recent bunch.

My Top Songs of Summer 2013 (15-1)

Without any preamble, here are my favourite 15 songs of the summer:

I plead the fif. I plead the fif-teen.

15. Placebo – Too Many Friends

“Too Many Friends” is a rock solid comeback song from the incomparable Placebo. I think the lyrics could’ve been a bit better/tighter/more polished, as the overarching premise is a smart one, but that’s picking nits. The melody is teflon-strong and Brian Molko’s dark humour with a dollop of sadness is as charming as ever.

14. Lady Gaga – Applause

“Applause” hit quick and hard. Gaga is still on top of her game. Maybe it’s not everyone’s favourite — it’s always going to be hard for her to top “Just Dance”, “Bad Romance”, “Poker Face”, “Alejandro” or “Papparazzi” — but “Applause” is still a monstrous pop tune, and she seems to be continuously striving to up the wacky quotient in the name of art. I’m down with wherever her path leads next for one main reason: it’s clear she cares a hell of a lot about her music/art/image. Gaga is preposterous, but the best of pop music should be.

13. Disclosure – When A Fire Starts To Burn

First listen: This is a catchy tune. Second listen: Why are my legs moving to the beat, and why do I have no control over them? Third listen: Why do my lips keep mouthing, “when a fire starts to burn, right” and why do I have no control over them? Thirtieth listen: My god, I’ve just listen to this song 27 times in a row. Yup, that’s what I call one of the songs of the summer. For me, “When A Fire Starts To Burn” is far and away Disclosure’s best song. Bonus points for the simple, funny, awesome video.

12. USS (Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker) – This Is The Best

Catchier and catchier with each listen, “This Is The Best” is USS at the top of their electro-pop-madness game. They get a tonne of bonus points for constructing a song that’s equally inviting whether played normally or at 1.5x speed. (Go ahead, click on the link to the lyric video below and try it for yourself. My world view was shattered when I first discovered I could change the playback speed on certain Youtube songs.)

11. Sia & David Guetta – She Wolf

Maybe the proper title is “David Guetta f. Sia – She Wolf”, but I’ve chosen to list the participants in order of who I deem to be most responsible for its song-of-the-summer worthiness. Granted, “She Wolf” is Guetta’s best track in maybe 10 years (the only other one that comes close is “Love Don’t Let Me Go”), and the way he’s constructed the ebbs and flows, the build-up, the climax, the come down, is pristine and perfect. Sia’s vocal is beyond perfect though, so much so that it renders the pristine moot. There’s an emotional depth in her vocal that you almost never find in a dancepop song. It almost sounds like she’s crying the hook (which is every word she sings by the way). I’m in awe of and hanging onto every syllable she utters.

10. White Lies – There Goes Our Love Again

Let’s just forget White Lies’ second album, Ritual, ever happened. Going from “To Lose My Life” and “Death” to anything from that LP is, to put it nicely, a fruitless endeavour (read: the album’s a barren wasteland with nary a good song to be found). Thankfully, it seems that White Lies have forgotten about it too, jumping right back on the Killers/Joy Division/New Order train with their mammoth comeback single, “There Goes Our Love Again”. It’s big, bold, bombastic, with an indomitable chorus and hooks to spare. Welcome back lads. This is where you belong.

9. Grouplove – Ways To Go

I didn’t expect this. Grouplove’s debut, Never Trust A Happy Song, was an enjoyable album with some really good tracks (see: “Colours”, “Tongue Tied”, “Itchin’ On A Photograph” and “Betty’s a Bomb Shell”). Yet, despite Grouplove’s zealot-like commitment to fun, their debut was a relatively straightforward guitar-pop record. Two years later, the times they’ve changed, and Grouplove have gone full-synth on their latest, Spreading Rumours. “Ways To Go” retains the frolic, fun and troublemaking charm of its predecessor, but it takes the gitch to a whole new level. It’s a delicious earworm, and one of the best songs of the summer to boot.

8. Jacques Lu Cont – Safe With You

“Safe With You” is a missile of a dance track. It’s all seek and destroy. And what a weapon it is. The Thin White Duke has done a lot of good work over the past decade, but I think this is his best ever single. These days, dance tracks this immediate and overpowering are few and far between.

7. Drake – Hold On We’re Going Home

Whoa. Didn’t think Drake had a track like this in him. I’m not a massive fan; I’ve liked some of his past work, but I’ve never been infatuated with anything he’s done before (“Take Care” is quite good, but I didn’t go apeshit over it). Scratch that record. “Hold On We’re Going Home” is an a ascendant rejoice: in melody, songcraft, and flipping the script. Gone is Drake’s usual bravado, any semblance of rap, and any posit of a prima donna. In its place is modesty, restraint, and pop mastery. Drake and producer Majid Jordan sought to craft a song that would stand up at weddings. I think they’ve done that and more.

6. Lorde – Royals

It took me a few listens to really warm to “Royals”. Now, it’s got me so hot I can cut sheet metal with my index finger. (Sure, I had to go the hospital, and I lost my right index finger, but I proved a point. When keeping it real goes wrong.) “Royals” is simple, direct, and catchy as hellfire and brimstone, while Lorde stands above her contemporaries, alone. I don’t quite understand how a 16-year-old has a voice like that, with a tone so full of depth and experience. Nor do I fully grasp how a 16-year-old has written lyrics so smart, simple, and representative of a common feeling. I do grasp one thing though: Lorde is already a huge star, and deservedly so. “Royals” is a brave statement that achieves a neat trick. Lorde might not be street legal, but she’s straight regal, even if she’s asking to be anything but.

5. The Boxer Rebellion – Diamonds

My vishnu, this band deserves to be huge. The London quartet already have two sensational songs to their name, “Evacuate” and “Semi Automatic”, from 2009’s unfortunately unheralded Union. Now, they have a third, the soaring triumph, “Diamonds”.

I got lost in this track many a time over the course of the summer. It’s sweeping. It sounds like it’s weeping. It’s at once uplifting, pensive, foreboding, and melancholic. It’s the sound of falling, rapidly through the clouds of days gone by, only to end up inverted and dazed, landed on the here and now.

The stand-out guitar work melds beautifully with the understated synths. This song will not get the listens and views it deserves. That’s a shame, but the effort the London lads have put forth is not. It’ll stand as a career highlight, I’m sure.

4. The Vaccines – Everybody’s Gonna Let You Down

When I hear “Everybody’s Gonna Let You Down”, I hear Dandy Warhols, a tinge of Nirvana, some Cage The Elephant, and a pinch of Weezer. Or The Vaccines 2.0 as it were. “Everybody’s Gonna Let You Down” is a chemical weapon that’s been used on the unassuming public, but it’s been done so slyly there will be no UN inspection.

The West-London quartet have built a nice space for themselves in the crowded indie/pop/alt world. They’ve differentiated themselves from their peers by being, well, kind of weird. The music on their first two LP’s is almost always catchy, but many a time the tunes zig when you think they’re going to zag. Until now, The Vaccines have kept the listener engaged with great melodies that always risk deviating from the beaten path — a tremendously difficult task that they accomplish with apparent ease.

Things are now a little different though. On their new EP, Melody Calling, things are decidedly more straightforward. The band are not trying to bury or subvert the hooks; they’re at the fore and they’re fantastic, especially with what’s probably their most melodic and earwormy song to date, “Everybody’s Gonna Let You Down”. I could listen to it 100 times in a row and not tire of it. Hell, I think I’ve come close. It’s a monumental beast with layers upon layers of hooks (I think the guitar work alone accounts for approximately 67 hooks). I believe The Vaccines have attempted to write the perfect pop song, and the crazy thing is, I think they might have done it. What an absurd thought. What pinpoint execution.

3. Alt-j – Taro

“Taro” took the long route to get to my home. It’s from Alt-j’s stunning debut, An Awesome Wave, which was released in 2012, and it wasn’t a single. I spent so much time obsessing over “Something Good”, “Tessellate”, “Breezeblocks”, “Fitzpleasure” and eventually “Matilda” and “Dissolve Me” that “Taro” was sort of a forgotten treasure. That is no longer the case.

It’s a marvellous, disorienting, poetic piece of art. The chorus, with its eastern imbued guitar riff, is a colossal hook. Melody is strewn all over the god-damn everywhere, like the blood of a septuple homicide smeared across a vast, pearl-white wall. The melodies are so relentless because they’re given shape not only by the impeccably executed music, but by lead singer Joe Newman’s varied, serene-come-ominous voice.

I am in awe of “Taro”‘s lyrics. They tell a story of two war photojournalists in a poetic style that I’m not sure I’ve heard before. The lyrics are mystifying, confounding, and complex. The structure of the composition is such that it doesn’t necessarily read rhythmically, yet Alt-j have (miraculously, I might add) found a way to weave it seamlessly with the music, to the point where it seems like one could not exist without the other. It’s pure, inspired artistic expression.

“Taro” forewarns: “Do not spray into eyes, I have sprayed you into my eyes.” Alas, I couldn’t help myself. I sprayed “Taro” into my eyes. It’s like a second pair of eyelids that I never knew I had have been lifted, making my eyes lighter, allowing me to see the world in colours and shapes I’ve never seen before. What a sight to behold.

2. Mutya Keisha Siobhan – Flatline

Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan, and Siobhan Donaghy are back. In case you’re not familiar with those names, they also go by the founding, original members of the seminal girl group Sugababes. I believe Sugababes are the best girl group of the past 15 years (subject for another day), but despite their popularity (mainly in the UK and Europe), their impact has been somewhat tempered by the revolving door of a lineup they’ve seen throughout the years. Siobhan was the first to go, lasting only one album, and the band, although they had a number of awesome hits without her, were never quite the same after that. One Touch, their debut record, still holds up spectacularly, almost 13 years later. It was a bone-rattling statement from three teenage girls who could do one thing better than 99.99% of their contemporaries: sing.

After a 13 year break from each other, they’re back as Mutya Keisha Siobhan (MKS for short). Certain clichés ring true: they sound wiser, rejuvenated, and ready to conquer the pop world once again. But does the thing that made them famous still ring true? Can they still harmonize better than pretty much anyone else? The answer to both questions is a resounding yes. And beyond their sparkling, shimmering, and more mature voices, they’ve come back with a song just as strong. “Flatline” is an unassailable pop masterstroke. That chorus. Holy shitting shithawks, that chorus. It might take one listen for it to devastate, it might take a few. But facts are facts, the Sugababes are back. Maybe without the name, but with everything else that made them superstars in the first place.

1. Vampire Weekend – Ya Hey

“Ya Hey” is my favourite song of the summer of 2013, for one simple reason: it gave me chills time and time again. I love the music. I love Ezra Koenig’s voice. I love the subtle electronic touches that make the song wholly unique, from anything else Vampire Weekend have done or anything else in music right now. I love the lyrics. I guess you could say I love it all. And the thing is, I care (sorry Icona Pop). I really care. About what I think the song means, about how it makes me feel, about Vampire Weekend.

I liked the first two Vampire Weekend records, but something’s changed, either in me or in them. Probably both. I think their latest LP, Modern Vampires Of The City is by far their best work. They’ve culled all of their charms and eccentricities into an irresistible concoction; they’re now a superpower of a band, on the short list of best bands on the planet.

“Diane Young”, “Obvious Bicycle”, “Step” and “Hannah Hunt” (among others; the album is glazed all over with awesome) are highlights, but there’s something different altogether about “Ya Hey”. It’s an examination of the spiritual. It’s filled with questions that allude to answers that beg more questions. If one were to be needlessly reductive, one would say it’s intellectual Indie. Maybe the problem lies in saying that it is anything.

Maybe it just is. Maybe, through the heart, and through the flames, “Ya Hey” says only, ‘I am that I am.’ Eureka. I think that’s it.

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