father of the bride

In all my life I've been very fortunate to never lose someone that I've considered my right hand person. It's true that these days time, distance, and life have made those hands feel far away, but lucky for me they're still no further than a phone call/message/etc.

I spent the weekend thinking on this idea about losing a right hand, so to speak, as it relates to some of the bands I enjoy. It was surprisingly more difficult than I expected.

The first one that jumped into my mind is Pink Floyd. For many of you, Pink Floyd is likely only two albums: Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall. But before they were the arena stage show giants that are still one of the most commercially successful bands of all time, they were a psychedelic rock band led by a guy named Syd Barrett. They put out one album under his leadership, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and then watched him slowly fade away under the burden of mental illness until he left the band in 1968. Check out "Astronomy Domine" if you've never heard any of Syd Barrett's songs.

Another one that immediately came to mind is Metallica. The story is so well worn by now that I feel like everyone knows it: the band is on a tour bus in Norway (and how metal is that) and hits a patch of black ice. Bassist Cliff Burton was killed in the incident, robbing us all of what could have become of such an amazing bass talent. That's not to say that his replacement, Jason Newstead, was a slouch, but even though they became arguably the biggest metal band after Burton's passing, Metallica became a totally different thing post 1986.

This week's band has been quiet for six years. Their first two albums were quirky, frenetic prep-pop classics. Their third album seemed to miss a bit. Then one of their founding members left. So the question is: is this the same Vampire Weekend?

On the surface, yes. The band is still Ezra Koenig on guitars and vocals, Chris Tomson on drums, and Chris Baio on bass. The band is without their right hand, Rostam Batmanglij, who left the band in 2016. Rostam produced this record, Father of the Bride, and it's got some firsts (besides being the first without Rostam). 

This is the first Vampire Weekend record with guests. It's got Danielle Haim (from Haim) and Steve Lacy (from the band The Internet) on it. It's the first album of theirs to be chock full of acoustic guitars. It's also at times much more difficult than we've come to expect from them. This isn't to say they go so far it's not accessible, it's just that time and growth have given them cause to stretch out.

What you don't find on this record as much is the great fun basslines of past albums. Instead there are children's choirs, strings, and vocoder. The album still has that pop meets world music thing going on (they feel like the standard bearers and have taken over for Paul Simon post Graceland), it's just not the main focus anymore. That clean guitar world sound that dominates their early records is in the backseat to keyboards and programming. They also just get plain weird, and you know that means something coming from me.

Clocking in at 59 minutes, there's something for lots of people on Father of the Bride. There are some tracks on it that are definitely for me. There are some tracks that are definitely not. I just don't think they're the same without their right hand.