Songbook Report: Vampire Weekend's Modern Vampires of the City


Vampire Weekend albums have become notorious for being dense with references to people, places, popular culture, history, and music. On their first two albums, these references were sometimes goofy throw-aways, but Ezra Koenig would also often use them as scenery when depicting the obliviously privileged youth of New York (their self-title debut) and the obliviously privileged youth of California (follow-up, Contra). On Modern Vampires of the City, which the band has referred to as the third album in a "trilogy," these references primarily serve to highlight how that aforementioned generation of young, urban Americans might be affected by aging, dying, and the after-life (or lack thereof).

The main concern here is the passage of time for an immature generation that is only getting older and seemingly has no idea what to do with the world that it's about to inherit (and that it never seemed to want in the first place). Secondarily, when you're concerned with the passage of time, you're ultimately concerned with your own mortality, and the human end-game hangs heavy over the entirety of Modern Vampires. (7 of the 12 songs on the album explicitly contain the word "die," "dying," or some variation thereof in the lyrics.) Lastly, when you're concerned about dying, you might also be concerned with what comes next: "Enter God," who is virtually the main character of the album.

Speaking of religion, those who have purchased a physical copy of the album might have noticed that the liner notes, printed on the back of a poster of the album's front cover, have been marked with several underlines, circles, and arrows. Specifically, the track lengths for 7 of the songs on the album are highlighted in some way: one with an arrow, three with underlines, and three with red circles (the only color in all of the album's packaging).

These could be random "editorial-looking" marks used only for design purposes, but it did also occur to me that for an album so focused on religion, it was at least possible that the highlighted track lengths were references to Biblical verses, which are also written as "# : ##." I've attempted to test the theory below by searching the highlighted track lengths and seeing if any verses seemed particularly relevant. (This is made more difficult by the fact that I see no way that any particular books might be referenced...) The results were, in some cases, seemingly too coincidental to be accidental... however, I should probably also get a tinfoil hat ready in case the band someday reveals that the liner note markings are meaningless or red herrings.

What follows is a brief synopsis on how each song on Modern Vampires fits into the themes noted above, an attempted explanation of any arguably obscure references, and notes on the aforementioned Biblical verses.

1A. Obvious Bicycle

An anthem for the over-qualified, under-employed (I should probably just say "Millennial" here, though I do resist using the word) generation. At 29, I'm the same age as Ezra Koenig and the line that "it's been 20 years and no one's told the truth" is an especially poignant reminder that this is not the world we were "promised" in 1993. In the past 5 years alone, we've gone from "the kids not standing a chance" to the kids barely wanting to shave or get out of bed in the morning. The mantra repeated during the chorus of the song, however, is "don't wait," seemingly suggesting that, discouraged as we may be, we probably shouldn't just expect this situation to remedy itself.

  • This song's track length of 4:12 is underlined in the liner notes. 1 Timothy 4:12 states: "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example of the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity."
2A. Unbelievers

Where "Obvious Bicycle" gets us started down the "aging/time running out" path, "Unbelievers" gets us started down the album's parallel religious path. The narrator sings of desiring "warmth" and "light" and "grace," but expects that he's not very likely to receive them as he is, apparently, not a strict adherent to the religion that's supposedly in charge of dispensing those gifts. It's not a very fair situation and this serves as a preview to the serious questioning of religion that takes place on the latter half of the album.

  • This song's track length of 3:23 is circled in red in the liner notes. Romans 3:23 states: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
3A. Step


The first two verses of this song serve up references in a way that is almost a parody of earlier Vampire Weekend work before the final verse returns to the theme of unwanted aging: "wisdom's a gift, but you'd trade it for youth/ age is an honor, it's still not the truth" and, of course: "we know the truth death, the true way of all flesh/ everyone's dying, but girl you're not old yet." The real crux of the song seems to be "I can't do it alone" where "it" very likely refers to moving on into the future, or, taking another "step." Nobody wants to grow up, but certainly nobody wants to grow up alone.

  • This song's track length of 4:12 is circled in red in the liner notes. (This is the same track length as "Obvious Bicycle," so I went with the verse that seemed more relevant to each song. Also, a track length of "4:36" is crossed out in the lyrics to "Step.") Ecclesiastes 4:12 states: "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves."
4A. Diane Young


"Dying young" is one way to not have to worry about an uncertain existence. I.e.: "Nobody knows what the future holds, and it's bad enough just getting old." If you've "got the luck of a Kennedy" (who are, of course, notorious for "dying young"), you might as well live hard and get it over with then? It's an option. It would certainly spare you all of the potential anxiety about joblessness, loneliness and Godlessness that we seem destined for...

  • This song's track length of 2:40 is underlined in the liner notes. Acts 2:40 states: "With many words he warned them, and he pleaded with them, 'save yourselves from this corrupt generation.'"
5A. Don't Lie

"Diane Young" segues directly into "Don't Lie" and in the first chorus of this song Koenig sings: "don't lie, I want him to know/ God's loves die young, is he ready to go?" The concern with youth, aging, and dying is on full display here as Koenig asks: "I want to know, does it bother you? The low click of a ticking clock." That seems to be the question to which an honest answer is requested. Are you aware of your own mortality? Are you afraid of it? He follows this up by stating, alternately that there's a "lifetime" and a "headstone" right in front of you. So what are you going to do about it? Honestly.

  • This song's track length of 3:33 has an arrow pointing to it. John 3:33 states: "Whoever has accepted it, has certified that God is truthful."
6A. Hannah Hunt

Hannah Hunt is a real person. She's a member of the San Francisco band, Dominant Legs, and she is (I believe still?) the girlfriend of former Girls front man, now solo artist, Christoper Owens. I have no idea whether Ezra Koenig knows Hannah Hunt or if any of this story is auto-biographical. It seems possible. It also seems possible that Koenig was simply too enamored with the meaning of Hunt's name to pass up the opportunity to write a song about her. "Hannah" in Hebrew essentially means "grace" so her full name could be said to mean "searching for grace," which would be much in keeping with one of the main thematic concerns of the album.

The couple in the song travel from "Providence to Phoenix," which is not likely a coincidence. "Providence" is the name given to God's divine guidance of mankind, and he has seemingly seen fit to set the couple on the path to "Phoenix," the symbol for "rebirth." On the way to Phoenix, the couple passes through Nebraska ("Waverly and Lincoln") but somehow ends up in Santa Barbara, named for the patron saint of "explosives."

There's a focus on "time" throughout the song (days, nights, seconds, hours, "our own sense of time") but it's in Santa Barbara where the narrator does, indeed, explode. Hannah tears the "New York Times" up into pieces (possibly also: "New York times", memories from New York) and Koenig unleashes a verse of sudden anguish, virtually unprecedented in Vampire Weekend's catalog. Without any "trust," or "future," or "answers," the value of "having your own sense of time" is suddenly not so clear.

  • This song's track length of 3:58 is underlined in the liner notes. Lamentations 3:58 states: "You took up my cause, you redeemed my life."
1B. Everlasting Arms

The second side of the album starts what might be referred to as the Modern Vampires "God-sequence." It starts with "Everlasting Arms," a reference to a 19th-century Christian hymn that was originally sung earnestly and here, slightly more disingenuously. The narrator isn't exactly sure why, if he was given the capability to live without God on Earth, he should spend that time here serving him. The reference to the narrator humming the "Dies Irae" while God played "Hallelujah" is emblematic of their relationship. The Dies Irae was a 13th-century hymn about the coming of the judgment day, where all "unbelievers" would be punished, and "Hallelujah" translates to "praise yah" or "praise God." The narrator isn't fooled. He knows that, as an unbeliever, he can give him hollow praise, but God's still going to drop that chandelier on him as soon as he walks beneath it.

2B. Finger Back

The majority of "Finger Back" seems to involve the narrator (insincerely) stating that he "deserves" punishment for the way he's been living his life. When he states: "I know that I've been wicked and the road to hell is wide/ cursed by curiosity that made us go inside," he seems to be indicating he's not the only one. The spoken-word section of the song makes reference to an actual restaurant in Manhattan called "Jerusalem," (which seems to be more at W. 104th and Broadway), which sure enough, has for its logo an icon of the "Dome of the Rock." Presumably, the "guy" the Orthodox girl falls in love with at the falafel shop is Arab, and that she does so in a restaurant with that name, in the presence of that logo, only further serves to question what game this "God" fellow has been playing at with all of these different religions. The on-going concern with life and death is then given yet another echo on the final line of the song: "I don't wanna live like this, but I don't wanna die."

3B. Worship You

Koenig keeps the "God-sequence" rolling with "Worship You" where he jumps into verses that are sung so quickly, it's almost as if he doesn't want "someone" (hint: an all-knowing, all-powerful "someone"), to know what he's saying. He outright questions why God needs humans to worship him "the way" he wants "on the day" he wants when that doesn't exactly seem reasonable. In return, humans have not only worshiped God, but his "red right hand." This is possibly a reference to the Nick Cave song of the same name, but that itself is a reference to John Milton's Paradise Lost, where Milton refers to God's "red right hand" as that of "God's vengeance." Again, Koenig is calling into question a system whereby not only are we supposed to worship God in a rather particular way, but we are supposed to worship his reservation of the right to punish us whenever he sees fit.

4B. Ya Hey

The culmination of all of this religious discussion is "Ya Hey." There has been quite a bit of theological discourse over the years about what exactly God's "name" is. The earliest Hebrew texts showed his name as the Hebrew letters, "YHWH," which roughly translated to "to be." Christians later began pronouncing this as "Yahweh" while some of the more conservative sects of Judaism are actually forbidden from speaking the name. The fact that Koenig has gone with the spelling and pronunciation of "Ya Hey," as if it's some sort of children's rhyme, might be a nod to this taboo.

The verses go on to address God as a sort of lovelorn buddy who's down on his luck. Abandoned by Zion and America, abandoned by both the "faithless" and the "zealots," Koenig suggests: "I think in your heart, that you see the mistake, but you let it go." This "mistake" might have been God's very refusal to identify and make himself available to his supposed subjects. The chorus references God's famous meeting with Moses where he appeared "though the fire and through the flame" and said only "I am that I am" when Moses asked for his name. Koenig seems to suggest that maybe if God hadn't always been so secretive and obtuse, he'd have a more loyal following these days.

Despite all this, Koenig never reads as atheist, or even agnostic. He certainly never doubts God's existence. He's there, he's just not doing a very good job.... except, for that time he spun "Israelites" into "19th Nervous Breakdown." Though their relationship is rather strained, Koenig's understanding of God is apparently maintained through something that is probably very important and religious to him: music.

  • This song's track length of 5:13 is circled in red in the liner notes. Joshua 5:13 (sometimes subtitled "The Commander of Yahweh's Army Appears Before Joshua") states: "Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, 'are you for us, or for our enemies?'"
5B. Hudson

"Hudson" is an obvious departure from anything Vampire Weekend has recorded to date and it's also the most impenetrable song on the album. The lyrics continue to focus on the passage of time, New York and death but the ominous tone of the song, and some, seemingly random, inscrutable lines make it difficult to determine where exactly we end up.

Hudson did "die in Hudson bay," but he was actually marooned and left to die there by a mutinous crew. We then flash forward to a couple apparently looking to rent an apartment in the city and a reference to "the Germans playing the Greeks." (Perhaps, the classic Monty Python sketch where German and Greek philosophers have a football match? Or a real football match?) Koenig then sings: "the time has come, the clock is such a drag" while an actual clock ticks in the background. He then suggests that "all you who change your stripes, can wrap me in the flag."

It's possible that Koenig is likening himself to Henry Hudson here, predicting that when history repeats itself, he too will be abandoned and left to die, leaving only his legacy plastered all over the City and State of New York. And then it will happen again to someone else. And again. And again.

6B. Young Lion

"You take your time, young lion." This is the only song on the album fully written and sung by multi-instrumentalist and producer of Vampire Weekend, Rostam Batmanglij. The idea of a young man "taking his time" seems to almost directly contradict Koenig's plea on "Obvious Bicycle" to "not wait" and contrasts with his near-obsession with death bearing down on us all throughout the rest of the album. It's a peaceful, hopeful counter-point to Koenig's sentiments (especially after "Hudson") and seems to be here to remind the listener that while time and death are scary prospects, how you choose to spend that time is ultimately up to you.


5 comments

  1. wow, great post scott. it's easy to take this album in and enjoy without the context, but this makes the experience all that much more enjoyable. more articles like this please.

  2. what that guy said!

  3. Amazing analysis. This article deserves widespread attention.

  4. the best article i've read on buffablog yet, thanks for the thought provoking stuff!

  5. I was looking for someone who saw this too! I was also looking into different ways to establish what Book each song could be referencing. But I was thinking that maybe the circles are different from the underlines and arrows. Maybe one of the means religious text, another means month:year, and the other means month:day for events that were very finite. I got this idea from the album cover picture having a similar sort of structure for the date. I couldn't come up with anything conclusive but there are some historical dates that directly relate to some of the songs, you should check it out!

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