Not too long ago, I finally listened to two of their albums, their debut and Modern Vampires of the City. I'm mainly motivated to listen to bands whose music that I was aware back in the '00s – mid '10s but had yet to fully listen to them (like through contemporary music reviews and I remember how their album covers looked). Prior to that, the only songs I've heard of them were the videos linked on the old forum's Crap/Not Crap thread up to the post that described Vampire Weekend as a rehashed Haircut One Hundred, which is very accurate. I do not like Vampire Weekend at all, but in a strange way.

First, the obvious direct reasons. I think the singing is wimpy, I find the guitar playing to be even wimpier, I do not like the keyboard sounds at all (this might be only non-EDM act to which I can say this, and I have big tolerance for kitschy sounding keys/synths), I don't like at all the way how the bouncy bass compliments the said music, and the lyrics... ugh, so preppy with all the Ivy League references. It's like if a Harvard trust fund student's polo shirt collection were turned into musicians.

What I find strange, though, is that – in spite of what I described – this music just leaves me utterly cold. Of course, I got no sense of enjoyment, not even for nostalgic reasons for college days or past friends or past scenes that I got while listening to other indie (or "'"indie"'") bands who were around at the time. But also, I didn't get a visceral reaction from listening to Vampire Weekend. Like yeah, I don't like it, but it's not like I'm listening to something horrible such as Kid Rock, Kanye West, or the Chainsmokers. Just completely cold to Vampire Weekend. It is somehow fascinating that I get that reaction (or lack thereof) and I'm curious if anybody here has that reaction too.

Vampire Weekend flies over my head but I'm able point to it and call it "Crap."

I've had a similar experience. I remember their third or fourth album (or one of the later ones) getting write ups saying, "this goes beyond their initial novelty, broadens, deepens. This is an unexpected work of genius." I think I dipped my ear into whatever album that was, kind of liked it, but forgot about it.

What's interesting about VW is they borrowed heavily from African highlife music, a genre I love. As a white, American rock music fan I think I'm a little past the point of refereeing cultural appropriation. And yet there's something especially clashing in a Dockers and penny loafers band with private tennis lessons borrowing from a distinctly west African music playbook.

Cardholder wrote: Wed Dec 31, 2025 1:41 am It's like if a Harvard trust fund student's polo shirt collection were turned into musicians.

That's exactly what it is.

I'd never listened to them. Checked them out after reading Meet Me In The Bathroom and was like "THIS? Really?" I mean, maybe it would sound cool if you'd never heard music before, but eeesh it was so wimpy and white and polite and bleah.

Agree with this as well:

losthighway wrote: As a white, American rock music fan I think I'm a little past the point of refereeing cultural appropriation. And yet there's something especially clashing in a Dockers and penny loafers band with private tennis lessons borrowing from a distinctly west African music playbook.

Clashing is the right word. It just came across as really insincere to me.

I honestly find them sort of nauseating. I mean, the preppy-indie thing was hardly new. But pretty much everything about this band just sucked. Yeah, West African novelty guitar, hooray, you're about as innovative as Paul fucking Simon's MOR solo career. And along w/cloying stuff like, I dunno, the Dirty Projectors, it was part of this tidal wave of "eclectic" "indie" defined by highly conceptual yet wimpy and careerist pop w/a few annoying quirks thrown in. Was this before or after "yacht rock" became cool again? Nevermind, probably better that I can't recall...

I even saw VW live, purely by accident (out of doors in a park, opening for founding Swans drummer Jonathan Kane's group, of all things), well before the first album came out and had much the same opinion. Crap w/o waffles.

Quite literally zero redeeming qualities.

Not a thing there for me on every single level. That's an achievement in itself!

I’ll give them a small shaving of an WF for a comment that the band leader once made during an interview on the subject of authenticity. He remarked that nobody could accuse them of being inauthentic, as they really were the prep-school kids they appeared to be. (It didn’t come off as obnoxious in the interview.)

But yeah, crap. Extremely cloying. Sweatless, sexless music.

On a related note, every few years I will look up Haircut 100 just to see if they were as awful as I remember them being. I hated them the first time around, but I was also very, very young. And the answer is, yes, they were awful, in a way that sucks the wind out of one’s sails.

What’s really puzzling about both those groups is that they probably have excellent record collections.

I tried their first record, and their music is just not my thing. I think I heard one of their songs from that 3rd album of theirs that got all the AOTY accolades, and I felt the same way, just shrug. I don't hate them, though. They do their thing, and they're not for me.

Also, saw them live when their were starting to blow up in '08 at a music fest, they were fine.

There's something instructive about the mixture of musical tastes (probably pretty cool), musical proficiency (pretty high), and someone's natural or contrived persona as an artist (dreadful). These baseball card stats combine with different weight.

I think this guy has all of the good and potentially bad attributes that VW does, minus the New England blue blood stuff, but I think this is a way better version of quirky white indie dude infuses west African music into his obvious chops.



I feel like as fellow Chicagoans many FMs probably have some opinions on Mr. Bird. I can't imagine he's every noise-rock afficianado's cup of tea, but for my money he's kind of what I wish the contemporary pop star would be.

their tour van

I didn't think much could be worse than TV on the Radio, and, like a shit phoenix, Vampire Weekend appeared.