Vampire Weekend - Diane Young / Step

A few years ago, I named Vampire Weekend's Contra the best album of 2010.  That's a decision I'll still stand by and defend to this day.  Well, give and take a few albums depending on my mood.  That was a competitive year. Anyways, Vampire Weekend have recently released two new singles from their upcoming album, Modern Vampires Of The City.  It's a double A-Side situation.

The first track is "Diane Young", a crashing song that makes an impact similar to "Cousins" from their previous record.  This time around, the band is really experimenting with pitch shifting.  Those altered vocals can be a delicate task to create.  There's a fine line between experimental and laughably ridiculous.  This may be a little bit of both.

The second new song is "Step".  Once again I'm seeing parallels between these two songs and the Contra era.  "Step" is to "Horchata" as "Diane Young" is to "Cousins".  I prefer the former tracks rather than the latter two. They're all fantastic, though.  Remember, this is Vampire Weekend we're talking about.

Modern Vampires Of The City is out May 6 on XL Recordings.  You can pre-order the album on vinyl, CD, or digitally, here.  If you want the album on white vinyl, then head over to the XL store or check with your independent record store.