Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires of the City is a gorgeous landscape of bright colors and sounds mixed into dark tones that will age with time. Lead singer and songwriter (along with Rostam Batmanglij), Ezra Koenig, is no longer singing about a fucking oxford comma - he’s gotten older and wearier and its effect is apparent. In the first track, “Unbelievers,” Koenig sings, “Got a little soul / The world is a cold, cold place to be / Want a little warmth / but who’s going to save a little warmth for me?…Want a little grace / but who’s going to say a little grace for me?”

His pessimism turns into an obsession with death for the remainder of the album. “Gods’ loves die young,” he says in “Don’t Lie,” and explains, “We know the true death - the true way of all flesh / Everyone’s dying, but girl you’re not old yet.” So there’s still hope for the young! Oh wait, “Diane Young” was actually supposed to be called “Dying Young,” but the band changed it because they thought it was too morbid! Even "Hudson" starts out with a drowning in the Hudson Bay and Koenig stating that "the time has come, the clock is such a drag." The tone of this album shifted so dramatically from Vampire Weekend's first two albums, and it may be one of the reasons it works so well.

Although many of the subjects are dark, the composition of songs is the best Vampire Weekend’s ever done. My favorite song on the album, “Hannah Hunt,” starts as a simple song about a boy and a girl (who, thankfully, do not die!) with Koenig’s vocals accompanied by a piano. It’s relaxing as the song coasts through the story, but the culmination of the song (at 2:41) is sublime. Just listen as the piano cries and Koenig softly screams in his inimitable falsetto, “If I can’t trust you, then damnit, Hannah, there’s no future, there’s no answer.” It’s sad yet beautiful. There are so many songs to explore on this album. And I’m still listening to it. A mark of a classic album, and Vampire Weekend’s best album to date.