Vampire Weekend is Back with "Modern Vampires of the City" (And So Is Rock Turtleneck)

Rock Turtleneck has been on a well-deserved hiatus for a couple of months but we are back now for a fine reason: the release of Vampire Weekend's third record Modern Vampires of the City.

There aren't many bands around these days who follow the old-school record-release model by showing tremendous growth and a continuing sense of adventure with each full-length release, but Brooklyn-based Vampire Weekend is one of them.

The lead single from Modern Vampires, "Diane Young" is a leap forward musically, lyrically and thematically and is weird in all the right ways. It features the only creative use of auto-tune I've heard since the first auto-tuned hit song ever, "Believe" by Cher.

Here's the Columbia-educated quartet blazing through the tune on Saturday Night Live a couple nights ago.



"Diane Young" would appear to be a play on "dying young" and features some superlatively erudite lyric writing courtesy of leader Ezra Koenig (2nd from right, above):

Irish and proud, baby, naturally
But you've got the luck of a Kennedy
So grab the wheel and keep holding it tight
Till you're tottering off into that good night
If Diane Young won't change your mind
Baby, baby, baby, baby right on time

Perhaps the best part of "Diane Young" is the way he sings "Baby baby baby baby" like another RT favorite, Elvis Presley. Way to TCB gentlemen, you're keeping the right company.

Buy Modern Vampires of the City on iTunes here.