Welcome (and welcome) to the territory of adventure. How long has it been since we came across such a recreational, playful, experimental and daring version of Vampire Weekend? Ezra Koenig, Chris Tomson and Chris Baio have resolved the five-year wait with a fifth album that is as jubilant sonically as it is reasonably afflicted lyrically, in the face of the foxes in which we are leaving this world. There are moments of blinding sonic fantasy: the combination of hip hop rhythm, trumpets and string arrangements of “The Surfer”, the colorful delirium of a “Connect” that reminds of “Steppin’ Out” of Joe Jackson, the successful free jazz grafts of “Classical” or the delicious pop operetta of “Ice Cream Piano”, as if they wanted to complement the line of succession that unites Elton John with Ben Folds and Mika. A non-stop.
It is an album of aural beauty, a succession of tweaks, again with the production of his faithful Ariel Rechtshaid and the mixes of Dave Fridmann, in which, along with the fortunate tests, there are also instant classics such as “Prep-School Gangsters” o “Gen-X Cops”with that guitar of suppurating electricity, perhaps the best Strokes single without bearing the Strokes signature because it has everything their music should aspire to at this moment. “Only God Was Above Us” (2024). of New York culture from decades ago), but for things as explicit as the Soul II Soul sampler in the sensational “Mary Boone”, rounding off what only a select few are capable of: creating dazzlingly current material with patches from the past.