Happy Halloween! Here is a gentle new pop song!
It looks like Vampire Weekend are back and in effect, as they took to the stage on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and spooked the audience in the most sane, easy way possible: with boppy piano, Ezra Koenig’s square longing and some righteous facepaint. The song is called “Unbelievers.”
What’s missing here is, frankly, a proper sound mix, but also the electric guitar: I rather miss that hollow-body Gretsch, and chonking acoustic guitar isn’t quite filling in those spaces. Still, it’s a second solid look into what the band has been up to. Vampire Weekend premiered a fresh track, “New Song No. 2,” at a show in July.
If history has any bearing on when we hear more studio material, remember that the pop-rock band’s first two albums both came out in January, getting a leg up during the slow post-Christmas period. “Contra,” from 2010, actually eeked out a No. 1 start on the Billboard 200, one of those rare moments when an indie takes top spot.