This is a long overdue review of one of the best albums (and Djake’s favorite album) of the year so far. Vampire Weekend’s tertiary album, Modern Vampires of the City, may well be this group’s finest. I can only describe it as being nostalgic; upon first listen it already sounds like your favorite album. What I mean by that is, although it is not my favorite album of the year (that coveted title goes to Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories), it merely sounds like it. It’s as if someone took one of your old favorite albums and made it better…but without ruining it.

There are many reasons Modern Vampires sounds like a old friend. The album borrows ideas from other genres and even some of their previous releases. “Obvious Bicycle” takes its beat from the song “Keep Cool Babylon” by Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus.

“Unbelievers” is so Buddy Holly. “Diane Young” is Buddy Holly-ish too. Not to mention, this song has some super cool voice manipulation going on.

Listen, it’s cool!

I listened to an Ezra Koenig interview and read about the effect. It’s called formant shifting. It’s basically a type of sound editing that has the same effect as changing the size of your vocal tract. The bigger you are (usually) the longer your vocal tract is, and the deeper your voice is. The smaller you are, the shorter it is and the higher your voice is. It would be like having Andre the Giant and a pre-pubescent boy singing with Ezra Koenig. They could be singing the same notes, but if Andre sings, it’s going to sound a lot deeper just based on the proportions of his vocal tract.

“Step” uses another outside source as it’s backbone: the tune “Step to My Girl” by Souls of Mischief. Also, I’m convinced that the chord progression is the same as Pachelbel’s Canon and Gigue in D (aka. the song played at every wedding).

In “Don’t Lie” there’s a brief moment of baroque pop in the background (around 0:54 in the video) that is reminiscent of “M97″ from their self-titled album.

Koenig utilizes his versatility in “Finger Back” by implementing some falsetto in the style of Contra.

“Worship You” apparently began as a Celtic-type song.

Now we come to “Ya Hey”, the veritable climax of the album. This song is addictive. The title’s meaning becomes more clear upon hearing the skewed voices in the chorus. “Ya hey” becomes “yahweh”. Of course, the story in the song is familiar if you listen to the lyrics: “through the fire and through the flames / you won’t even say your name / only ‘I Am that I Am'”. The parable of the burning bush has never sounded cooler.

The final track of the album, “Hudson”, has aspects of trip-hop à la Massive Attack or Portishead.

Some might view this familiarity as a bad thing; unoriginal. To that I say, nothing is really “original”. Borrowing and sampling in music has been going on FOREVER! During the Renaissance, composers frequently used pre-existing hymns or chant melodies in their music. Brahms uses a theme from a Bach cantata in the final movement of his fourth symphony. Percy Grainger traveled around England to record people singing folk songs on wax cylinders, which he then adapted and integrated into his compositions. There are countless examples of this! I’m tired of the pretentious whining about the merit of a musician based on “originality”. Everybody borrows from everybody else; a musician’s merit is not based on whether or not they borrow ideas from other musician, but how well they do it and how well they make it their own. Modern Vampires nails it.

(I must thank Djake for bringing so much of this to my attention!)

That Michael Myers is so dreamy…

The aforementioned lullaby can be heard in the track “Thème Romantique”. Jarre flawlessly portrays Christiane’s melancholy; her longing for the perfect face she once had. The theme feels distantly hopeful, yet contains just enough dissonance to inform the audience of the futility of Christiane’s wish.

The other theme that really stuck with me is the title track for the film. It is astoundingly eerie and uneasy. A similar sentiment can be heard in the “Valse poursuite” theme, heard at the beginning of this trailer:

(Edit: the title track can be heard around 2:30 of this trailer also)

The chromaticism in the music is reflective of Julius Fučík’s “Entrance of the Gladiators”, the archetypal circus music.

Jarre twists the carnival-like theme, creating an uneasiness in the listener that is more than befitting of the dementia Les yeux portrays.

I loved this film and thought Jarre’s music was impeccable. More than anything, though, watching the flick really made me want to watch Face/Off, which I’m certain was influenced by Les yeux. I give the score (and film) a 17/17 on the Sitzman scale, which I can only use if I would have otherwise rated it 10/10…because I don’t get the Sitz-o-meter. It’s too stressful for me.

Hi, I’m Hans Zimmer and this is my head shot

Now, before I dive into what I’m sure some readers will regard as “Zimmer-bashing”, let me first address some semantics of the film music world. I am often asked what the differences are between “score”, “soundtrack” and “original soundtrack”. A score is when music is written specifically for certain scenes, characters or story lines in the movie (e.g., Howard Shore’s scores for the LOTR trilogy). In other words, it is written with the movie. The term score can also refer to the physical, written-out music itself. This is confusing, I know.

A soundtrack is pre-existing music cut to film (O, Brother Where Art Thou?, Donnie Darko). Some films can have a score AND a soundtrack (or a soundtrack and an original soundtrack…see more below).

Finally, an original soundtrack is music written by a composer for various moods or “sounds” then cut to film afterwards by director, producer or editor. Hans Zimmer very rarely writes scores, he writes original soundtracks. This is not a bad thing! I am not saying that the film score is the end-all be-all of movie composing. There are so many incredible original soundtracks (The Social Network, Amélie, etc.) and I am not one of those music snobs who claims that only the pure movie score is a work of art.

Why am I discussing word usage so much? I’m not really sure. If anyone were to take a look at my genres on my iPod, the only film music is listed as “Soundtrack”. It doesn’t really bother me in casual speech if someone asks me what my favorite soundtrack is when they mean film score. What does bother me is the Academy’s award for “Best Original Score” being given to an original soundtrack composer. But there are a great many things that bother me about the Academy, so I’m not going to get into that.

I am not alone in my dislike of Hans Zimmer. In fact, so many people criticize him for being lazy or incompetent, referring to him as Hans “the Hack” Zimmer. I do agree to some point that he is a lazy composer (more on this later), but I don’t loathe the man. I admire the fact that he is completely self-taught. I recognize that yes, he does have talent. I love that he gives money to charities, musical and otherwise, and that he has said when he retires he wants to help young composers by producing their scores. These are all great attributes!

There are also those who bash his poor use of leitmotifs. In making the claim that he is inferior because he does not utilize motives the way John Williams or Howard Shore does is ridiculous. Who ever said a leitmotif is a necessity in film music?! There is no rulebook somewhere that claims “all good film music must have themes for all its characters”. These are not the problems I have with Hans Zimmer.

Coming back to Zimmer’s so-called “laziness”. I find it hard-pressed to find evidence that he is lazy if one simply examines his body of work. The man is CONSTANTLY working. If anything, he seems to bite off more than he can chew. I do, however, find some of his actual composing to be lazy. Sometimes I wonder if you can take any Hans Zimmer soundtrack and plop it into another film he has “scored” (semantics!) without disrupting the harmony of the flick. Some of his music can be so monotonous. There’s a difference between having a voice or style in music and everything sounding the same (e.g., Radiohead has a certain style, Green Day sounds the same in every song).

For example, listen to this excerpt from Pearl Harbor, while watching…

…this scene from Gladiator with the sound turned down. It totally works.

Here it comes. The kicker. The number one reason why I don’t exactly like Hans Zimmer: he relies on other people to finish his scores and yet his name is still the only one plastered on the film. Okay, okay, he did give credit to Lisa Gerrard for her work on Gladiator, but guess who else composed for that film? Klaus Badelt. He was not only an additional composer, but he co-produced the score as well. Oh and his score for The Thin Red Line (his best, in my opinion)? No one ever mentions that Francesco Lupia and John Powell were additional composers. Not enough proof for you? Here are some other notable “Zimmer” soundtracks that were crafted with the help of additional composers:

1. Inception- Lorne Balfe
2. Rango- Lorne Balfe, Tom Gire, Dominic Lewis, Adam Peters, John Sponsler, Geoff Zanelli
3. Sherlock Holmes- Lorne Balfe
4. The Dark Knight- Lorne Balfe
5. Batman Begins- Ramin Djawadi (also composes for Game of Thrones), Mel Wesson
6. Last Samurai- Trevor Morris, Blake Neely, Geoff Zanelli
7. The Lion King- Alex Wurman (uncredited)

So, why can’t movie producers put these nice folks’ names in the credits under “Music By”? Also, why hasn’t Mr. Zimmer pushed for them to do so? The short answer is because the movie industry is greedy. Hans Zimmer is a huge name and they know he sells; they don’t want other names muddying up their screens and billfolds. I understand this isn’t just a Hans Zimmer problem; it’s a Hollywood problem. BUT Zimmer is a notorious repeat offender. He has regular collaborators such as Lorne Balfe and Geoff Zanelli, so why are their names not with his? I would even be happy to see “Music by Hans Zimmer and Friends” or something of the like. Trent Reznor doesn’t take all the credit for The Social Network and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Of course not. Atticus Ross’ name is in the credits, right next to Reznor’s. Same goes for any collaboration of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. I think it’s time Zimmer took a hint from his fellow rockers-turned-film-composers and give credit where credit is due. Even if it means making his producers angry.

Mmm, Hobnobs…