Modern Vampires of the City

Modern Vampires of the City is Vampire Weekend’s third studio album, and was co-produced by Ariel Rechtshaid and band member Rostam Batmanglij. Rechstaid’s contributions are incredibly interesting, as he is a hip-hop producer who was responsible for, among other tracks, Usher’s “Climax.”

Bob Boilen of NPR asked Ezra this on the title of the album:

I love the title. The title of your album is a quote from the song “One Blood” by Junior Reid. What’s your attraction to Junior Reid? Can you talk about the connection between that song and your record?

Ezra Koenig:

Yeah, this is such a classic song. It’s been sampled a lot. And I always liked the message of the song, one blood, unity of man message. But there’s always something kind of haunting about the phrase “Modern Vampires Of The City.” And at first there was something that seemed kind of funny about calling a Vampire Weekend album Modern Vampires Of The City, but then I do feel like there’s some deeper resonance there too.

Modern Vampires of the City debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 for the week of June 1st, 2013. It sold 137,000 copies during its first week to land them that position on the chart. The record was later certified gold by the RIAA on November 6th, 2014.