Just to show that not all my tastes go back to the last century, here I include Modern Vampires of the City by American indie rock band Vampire Weekend. Their third album, it was released in 2013 and I became aware of it through my sons. I understand that it is quite different to their previous album, Contra. It is very much a studio album with many samples and other special effects. The cover art is a 1966 photograph by Neal Boenzi of the smoggiest day in New York City history, on which the air pollution killed at least 169 people. It was the singles that first came to my attention - "Diane Young", "Step", "Ya Hey" and especially "Unbelievers" (the words of which intrigued me). Next came "Obvious Bicycle" and "Hannah Hunt". The album was very successful and was acclaimed by critics.
Several publications named it best album of 2013 and it has been called sixth "Best Album of the Decade So Far".
The album is good pop music but the musical and lyrical layers add greatly to the interest. This quotation from Barry Lenser gives you an idea of why it might be of interest to someone like myself "Modern Vampires of the City is indeed a deeply God-haunted work ... [Ezra] Koenig doesn't give any indication he himself is a believer (more often just the opposite), but there is a recurring sense of engagement with God throughout the album, a sense of wrestling with the implications and impossibilities of faith. By accident or, more likely, by design, this builds and builds until Koenig puts everything on the table and addresses God directly."
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