Modern Vampires of the City
by Vampire Weekend
  • Record Label: XL
  • Release Date: May 14, 2013
User Score
8.8

Universal acclaim- based on 418 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 384 out of 418
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 418
  3. Negative: 13 out of 418

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  1. shad0w0711
    Aug 15, 2022
    7
    Bah, not bad, but still beeing the same than VW 2 previous records, is nothing to be impressed but is something really nice, sounds and feels great you feel tired.
  2. Thiago25
    May 6, 2022
    10
    Uma espécie de romance de formação extremamente sombrio, e simultaneamente irreverente. Uma obra-prima.
  3. All_ButTrU4
    Nov 24, 2021
    8
    When everything here lines up the right way--and it more often than not, it does--Modern Vampires is the perfect album for the coming Atlantic summer. Think of it like **** taffy: bright and sweet, with plenty to chew on.
  4. RaynerCS
    Jun 16, 2021
    10
    Perfeito! As letras são cheias de metáforas sobre envelhecer, religião e desilusões sobre a vida isso como uma melodia pop e catchy. Sobre a produção eu nem sei o que falar além de incrível e impecável serio mesmo, é a mais diferentona dos três primeiros, ela é super rica, as vezes tenta coisa acontecendo mas fica tão bom e vc se perder dentro das melodias
  5. D0137
    Oct 7, 2020
    10
    This is Vampire weekend’s best work, the albums thematic structure resonates perfectly with the production choices and the lyricisms is subtle, literate and, while layered and ambitious, the bands uncanny ear for melody and great hooks makes it accesible. I think this is a great album!
  6. Ricko
    Apr 22, 2020
    7
    Album number 3 combines elements of the debut and it's follow up "Contra". My experience with the album follows the same path to all VW records. Decent pop but very far down the list of albums I'd ever go back to. There is a lot to appreciate about how they put their songs and records together. They put more into the construction of a song than is initially apparent. They are differentAlbum number 3 combines elements of the debut and it's follow up "Contra". My experience with the album follows the same path to all VW records. Decent pop but very far down the list of albums I'd ever go back to. There is a lot to appreciate about how they put their songs and records together. They put more into the construction of a song than is initially apparent. They are different indie to the rest and this is very much by design. At least a quarter of the songs are excellent. There is just something about them for me that I can't get past and to use a John Peel analogy, they are a team playing in the top division when in reality they are 2nd division at best.… Expand
  7. bdubz
    May 11, 2019
    8
    Great evolution of their sound and solid album, start to finish. Also, the last Vampire Weekend album I will listen to, their latest album is terrible.
  8. HyanHythalo
    Jul 27, 2017
    10
    A good job. We noticed in the songs the affection that the band had with each piano note, each instrument, each letter. In addition, you can listen to this album without skipping any tracks.
  9. duckhost
    Jun 4, 2016
    10
    Vampire Weekend doesn't do many albums but when they do is something so wonderful that you create a Metacritic account just to give it a 10/10 score, every song it's perfect.
  10. canobleb
    May 24, 2015
    10
    Vampire Weekend have often referred to MVOTC as being the last instalment in the 'trilogy' of their first three albums. Although its sound wildly differs from their first album, MVOTC still somehow retains a strange similarity to its previous counterparts. This album feels more raw, organic, and simplistic, with much less utilisation of electronic sounds. The theme of MVOTC is a lotVampire Weekend have often referred to MVOTC as being the last instalment in the 'trilogy' of their first three albums. Although its sound wildly differs from their first album, MVOTC still somehow retains a strange similarity to its previous counterparts. This album feels more raw, organic, and simplistic, with much less utilisation of electronic sounds. The theme of MVOTC is a lot darker, and feels more mature, with many lines relating to mortality, and religious questioning being entwined into the lyrics. However, this album does not leave us craving upbeat, catchy songs, which can still be found. Stand out tracks include Young Lion, Ya Hey, Everlasting Arms, and Step.… Expand
  11. contrachloe
    Mar 5, 2015
    10
    Vampire Weekend's third album, Modern Vampires of the City, is clearly a work of art. Comparing it to the other albums, one can hear how much the members of the band have grown from the college boys they were when they first started. MVOTC takes on a newer/different sound than the previous albums but in a positive, progressive way. Wonderful work from a fantastic band!
  12. Syott
    Jan 9, 2015
    7
    En esta colección de canciones inmediatamente enganchadora, nos podemos encontrar con melodías sumamente encajadas en sí y, a la vez, contrastadas; manteniendo la variación de las canciones, no te aburrirás de este álbum, puesto que cada canción es digna de recordar y cabe mencionar que esta banda tiene un futuro brillante.
  13. linx21
    Aug 31, 2014
    9
    Amazing record by Vampire Weekend. I was'nt a big fan of the group before i first heard "Ya Hey" couple of weeks ago. I decided to get whole album and give it a shot - i must say i don't regret. Lyrics, great variety of different instruments, switching tempo and overall haunted LP.
  14. jotaeseche
    Aug 28, 2014
    10
    After two stylish, modern and flourished albums, Vampire Weekend found the perfect way to sound familiar yet more complex, more mature, more eccentric, while showing and performing catchy and lovely songs that easily stick to both a summer party or a cosy living room with a fire and a sofa. They haven't changed at all; they, actually, have maximized and refined their essence, their talent.
  15. Disk
    Jul 15, 2014
    8
    Here they are. Out of the smoke and rubble, NYC’s Vampire Weekend emerges with a new change of attitude. It’s been three years since the college radio-loved VW have released an album and the world has seen them recluse into the vapor to discover a new path into the musical atmosphere. With their new album, Modern Vampires of the City,Vampire Weekend has journeyed successfully.
  16. RamonGuerrero
    May 2, 2014
    10
    As the songs go one, you will keep thinking in the awesome lyrics and different rhythm that totally changed the look of Vampire Weekend. This revolutionary album is the band's best till now, and I can't wait to see what will come next.
  17. Velocijoey
    Mar 19, 2014
    10
    An album that changes the way we all look at an already well established band. Soft beats, Tender harmonies and light production value make this album a success in even the toughest markets. An essential album to have and give a listen or 10.
  18. Muddsjr
    Feb 22, 2014
    8
    Modern Vampires of the City is Vampire Weekend's darkest album that might lack in that familiar ground that made Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend in the first place, but after a few plays and a few more times to adjust to Vamp's more experimental and dark ground, as it turns out, Modern Vampires of the City might just be a clean page for this phenomenal, endlessly surprising and creative band.
  19. RedOwlReviews
    Feb 5, 2014
    9
    Few albums in 2013 were crafted as intelligently as Vampire Weekend's "Modern Vampires of the City." The album bursts with creativity and technical brilliance. Coruscating and groovy tracks like "Diane Young" and haunting but rhythmically bright tracks like "Unbelievers" and "Ya Hey" both serve as a testament to this album's efforts to not succumb to the popular trends of past musicalFew albums in 2013 were crafted as intelligently as Vampire Weekend's "Modern Vampires of the City." The album bursts with creativity and technical brilliance. Coruscating and groovy tracks like "Diane Young" and haunting but rhythmically bright tracks like "Unbelievers" and "Ya Hey" both serve as a testament to this album's efforts to not succumb to the popular trends of past musical styles, but instead, carve out its own name (while maintaining the integrity they have established in their past two albums). Vampire Weekend has set new standards that will be hard to beat for any upcoming alternative albums this year.

    FINAL SCORE: 92.5 (almost perfect -----o--------------- perfect)    … Expand
  20. Juosan
    Jan 4, 2014
    7
    Bah, not bad, but still beeing the same than VW 2 previous records, is nothing to be impressed but is something really nice, sounds and feels great you feel tired.
  21. AudioGunblast
    Dec 5, 2013
    9
    Three albums in, Vampire Weekend still haven't lost their edge. While their last album had a concept about a breakup that sends Ezra's brain on all sorts of crazy tangents, this one is a more controlled statement that mainly deals with Ezra's religious beliefs. It doesn't have any irrelevant mini-concepts like The Clash, or the Contra video game, or Nicaraguan revolutionaries, although itThree albums in, Vampire Weekend still haven't lost their edge. While their last album had a concept about a breakup that sends Ezra's brain on all sorts of crazy tangents, this one is a more controlled statement that mainly deals with Ezra's religious beliefs. It doesn't have any irrelevant mini-concepts like The Clash, or the Contra video game, or Nicaraguan revolutionaries, although it does have the random Vampire Weekend weirdness that always shows up in their lyrics. Like the music ones first Lil Jon, then Kanye West, and now Modest Mouse and DragonForce. What do these things all have in common? Everybody knows I'm a moster! (But seriously, the thing is that none of those artist references have anything to do with the rest of the song, not that they really have to).

    Since the album has religious themes, sometimes also atheistic or agnostic, you'd expect church instrumentation a la Arcade Fire's "Neon Bible", and you would be right. But the difference is that none of the tracks are overloaded with organs, and surprisingly not baroque instruments either, like you would expect from Rostam Batmanglij. Instead, the preferred sound is that of choirs, in my opinion the perfect choice. Ezra and Rostam must be geniuses, this band has had some of the coolest evolution I've ever gotten to experience with my ears. They know how to evolve.

    I observed that the album Vampire Weekend was rather quiet, and Contra was much more willing to raise its voice. Modern Vampires is a little bit in the middle of the road, as its concept is as well. Some of these tracks are bangers, some are chillers, and some are quiet and put you right on the edge of your seat. All of these varieties work. That really pleases me because the result is a record that, somehow, impossibly, I end up liking BETTER than Contra. Yeah, I can't believe I said it, but it's actually true. This is my favorite Vampire Weekend album to date.

    I give this a 9 out of 10. This band's fourth LP has found itself at the very top of my list of most anticipated upcoming albums. But is probably won't arrive until 2016. Meaning I'll have something missing from my life until then.

    STANDOUT TRACKS: OBVIOUS BICYCLE, UNBELIEVERS, DIANE YOUNG, HANNAH HUNT, EVERLASTING ARMS, WORSHIP YOU, YA HEY, HUDSON, YOUNG LION

    (Yes, I realize only three tracks remain. That's how good this is. Almost every track on here can be considered one of my favorites.)    … Expand
  22. N10
    Dec 2, 2013
    10
    Absolutely fantastic, my personal favorite indie rock record this year, album of the year material. Screw it, one of the better records of the past decade. Lovin' it!
  23. edvard
    Sep 27, 2013
    9
    First listen, didnt really care, second listen, awesome! So catchy songs. I find myself whistling or singing along with all songs! Really awesome awesome! Favorites: Unbelievers, Diane Young, Hannah Hunt, Everlasting Arms, Finger Back.
  24. jmarkfin
    Sep 17, 2013
    10
    The best release in a summer that was packed with quality music and hype. Vampire Weekend gets better with each effort, and the drastic change in musical style while still maintaining an incredibly unique identity and sound and continuing to produce masterfully impresses.
  25. axelkoch
    Jul 29, 2013
    9
    It seems like just yesterday that the four New Yorkers made a surprisingly big impact on America’s indie music scene with their self-titled debut, but Vampire Weekend has already come back for a 3rd album with Modern Vampires of the City, half a decade after their sudden success. And thinking “that was so long ago?” now is understandable since the band has never really departed from theirIt seems like just yesterday that the four New Yorkers made a surprisingly big impact on America’s indie music scene with their self-titled debut, but Vampire Weekend has already come back for a 3rd album with Modern Vampires of the City, half a decade after their sudden success. And thinking “that was so long ago?” now is understandable since the band has never really departed from their roots; even the remarkably darker Modern Vampires has a couple of tracks that are quite exactly in the style of their first two major releases. But let’s not draw the curtain over it: Vampire Weekend sound really fresh and renewed with their new album while their not-that-altered-after-all style makes it clear that Ezra, Rostam, Chris, and Chris are still able to find the same amount of pleasure in making music as they did when writing noughties classics like Oxford Comma or Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa. While the unbelievably smoggy New York on the CD cover could have induced you to expect a darker album, Modern Vampires is, with a few exceptions, quite buoyant, after all. Frontman Koenig is, for example, singing his lyrics so fast in Finger Back or Worship You that the accompanying booklet is necessary to understand everything. And in fact, songs like those two are, even though they are likely the two weakest songs on the album, really important in preventing the album from becoming dreary. On other songs like Hudson, Hannah Hunt or Young Lion, the band’s nature gets some modification as well and while all of this isn’t a Standing on the Shoulders of Giants-esque change in tone, it is still a very entertaining and very well-done new approach to their music. What also made me like it more than Vampire Weekend and Contra are the more understandable lyrics (barring Finger Back that is cryptic), however, rummaging through the internet during the first listening session is supposably still indispensable. Anyway, the songs provide even greater fun if you manage to comprehend (or basically just interpret because we don’t actually have proof for RapGenius’ annotations or the like) them and I’m willing to bet that they’ll land on your iPhone library just in a matter of days. It’s admittedly hard to make a step forward from two albums that were as great as their two previous ones, but while not continuously as good as their career highpoints Diane Young or Hannah Hunt; Modern Vampires of the City is an immensely fulfilling follow-up that you will soon adore for pretty much anything that you can adore about music.… Expand
  26. Jbow95
    Jul 28, 2013
    10
    One of the best albums of 2013. I found myself listening to it over and over again. The lyrics are deep and meaningful and the songs range from hauntingly beautiful to fun and catchy. I wasn't a fan of Vampire Weekend before this album but Modern Vampires of the City has made me a believer. Do yourself a favor and listen to this fantastic album!
  27. Kindius
    Jul 23, 2013
    9
    Vampire Weekend crafts another lyrically stunning album, delivering a wide variety of dynamic and spontaneous songs. The band strikes a near perfect balance in making catchy, yet still meaningful songs. Do yourself a favour and listen to this album, you will not be disappointed.
  28. SauloVictor
    Jul 20, 2013
    10
    This is one of the best albums of the Year!! Lyrically haunting, emotionally deep and superb in every other aspects. Do yourself a favor, and listen to this, your ears will thank you!
  29. Mab_987
    Jul 12, 2013
    9
    This album takes all the elements about Contra that really developed the band’s sound, and keeps going in that direction while simultaneously, to some extent, abandoning key elements of their original style more something that’s a bit more refined, a bit more mature, and overall another step in the right direction. No matter which album you look at though, one element that runs through allThis album takes all the elements about Contra that really developed the band’s sound, and keeps going in that direction while simultaneously, to some extent, abandoning key elements of their original style more something that’s a bit more refined, a bit more mature, and overall another step in the right direction. No matter which album you look at though, one element that runs through all of them to me is how, as broad and sometimes overused as this sub-genre tag is, Vampire Weekend is the absolute epitome of “indie pop”. While always being chock full of catchy hooks & usually having a lot of accessibility, they’re also never afraid to experiment or throw in a few unorthodox elements, and you can always tell there’s a lot of effort & creativity being put into the songwriting in creating these sets of great pop tunes that, while easy to get into, always have a certain bite to them, whether it be with infectious hooks, fun energy or emotional resonance.

    The latter in particular is in my opinion the main improvement of this album in comparison to their previous work: the lyrics & moods. While not entirely devoid of substance, the emphasis of those albums, especially on the debut, seemed to be on just a group of cool upper-class college kids writing fun upbeat pop songs. Which is fine & all, but it seems like on MVotC something suddenly clicked in Ezra's brain that made him really get in touch with his sincere & vulnerable side, and as a result his lyrics became more interesting to read into & possibly connect with. One highly recurring theme here is Koenig’s strained & almost antagonistic relationship with religion, particularly on track like “Unbelievers”, “Worship You”, and more subtly & symbolically on various other tracks that are a bit harder to decode. Even though I’m a Christian myself I can appreciate anti-religious messages as long as they’re handled with a sense of intelligence & class. Fortunately that was the case here. “Unbelievers” is a song that to me can be interpreted in one of 2 ways: either it’s an “atheist love song” of sorts about a couple willing to undergo together the slight sense of shunning in society atheists tend to get for, or from the point of view of an atheist man dating a religious woman & struggling to keep that difference from getting in the way of things too much. Either way it’s a pretty engaging situation to think about. “Worship You” is a much more standard track pointing out valid hypocrisies of some of the worse religious people out there & why some people have a certain level of vendetta against organized religion altogether. Aside from that, other interesting tracks lyrically include the complicated & metaphor-flooded “Step,” which on multiple occasions compares a man’s relationship with his significant other to that of his relationship with his music collection/tastes. One more lyrically notable track is the opener “Obvious Bicycle”, which details a socially bankrupt man with seemingly little meaning to his life pandering to the greedy businessmen of the world to get by. It’s a descriptive character piece that I’m sure a lot of people could relate to in this day & age. Both in the previous cases & with this there’s a lot of sincerity & sentimentality put into the messages, and I hope to see this kind of emotional openness reappear on the band’s future work.

    My favorite track here, and one of my favorite songs of 2013 period, is Diane Young, a fantastically catchy, upbeat & kinda insane conglomeration of sounds that to me sounds like what would happen if Elvis was still alive in 2013 & listened to a lot of Pitchfork-promoted indie rock bands, and maybe an EDM producer or 2. And it’s all done with this carefree & bombastic attitude that I can’t imagine anyone not enjoying to some degree. Lyrically it’s not one of the more overflowing songs substance-wise, but it does have a cute little homophone-wordplay title & some clever lines about living life to its fullest if the titular fate won’t faze you. Going back to how the album is musically though, this album is probably the band at their most creative ambitious & probably at their most diverse, if not at around the same level as that of Contra. However, MVotC seemingly shows a mindset shift in their creative process, thinking more “let’s write a set of great tracks that flow together well” than “let’s see how crazy we can get in this one style incorporating this element here”, though the latter does admittedly pop up on a couple tracks here & there. Still there are definitely changes between tracks, between slow & sentimental tracks, steady mid-tempo grooves on tracks like “Ya Hey” (which incorporates these weird chipmunk-like backing vocals that while annoying at first grew on me a bit), a few that just go bonkers tempo-wise, and the downright creepy semi-closing track “Hudson”.

    One thing’s for sure on Modern Vampires of the City: Vampire Weekend isn’t even close to creatively bankrupt yet. 95/100    … Expand
  30. panicatthefun
    Jul 10, 2013
    10
    I got so excited for this album to come out! I've listened to it almost 4 times since release! I think this could be their best album overall! Best tracks in my opinion: Unbelievers, Diane Young, Ya Hey
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Awards & Rankings

47
#47 Best Album of 2013
24
#24 Most Discussed Album of 2013
42
#42 Most Shared Album of 2013

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
84

Universal acclaim - based on 51 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 45 out of 51
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 51
  3. Negative: 1 out of 51
  1. Austin Chronicle
    Oct 4, 2013
    67
    If Modern Vampires of the City makes one thing clear, it's that Vampire Weekend's just getting started here.
    Read full review
  2. Punknews.org (Staff)
    Jun 7, 2013
    80
    Overall, Modern Vampires of The City sounds fantastic, but not overproduced.
    Read full review
  3. Record Collector
    Jun 4, 2013
    60
    While MVOTC doesn’t represent a seismic leap from their earlier material, the general feeling is of a much more considered collection, with greater emphasis on song craft.
    Read full review
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