Vampire Weekend “SunFlower” Review

Honestly, I have never heard of Vampire Weekend, so this is going to be a pretty unbiased review in the sense that I have no previous experience with their music or the band as people. I will be reviewing the music video along with the song.


First, the music video. The entire video is split in two, with a black line separating two videos that occasionally split into four, or combine into one in sync with the music. The videos are often the same video, just edited or cut in ways so their usually showing something different than the other, such as a different angle of something happening, making it pretty interesting to watch at first. All of the music video is lit in a sort of orange and brown tone, and set around what seems to be a small market/restaurant. The video doesn’t seem to follow any consistent story, and really just boils down to a guy walking around singing, with fancy editing thrown in and occasionally random shots of people who I assume are members of the band. In all, it is fun to watch at first, but the video starts severely lacking variety to keep the watcher intrigued. That’s where the music should come in.

 

As for the song, it is mainly bass, guitar, and drums, with occasional vocals, as identified by Spencer Kim, but there is definitely more instrumental time than “lyrics,” (lyrics refers to clear words, and not hums and bops heard in the background). The lyrics also need to be focused on to understand them completely, but I’m assuming the average listener won’t be able to make out what the vocals are saying other than “Sunflower.” I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the instrumental, but the lyrical vocals can be calming at times when paired with it. The “choir” type humming that is in the background, as well as the “bop” type sound that is made along with the instrumental are both not very enjoyable either. I can see it being good sounding to people, but for me it reminds me too much of school choirs and doesn’t seem like something that I would listen to for enjoyment. Overall, the song is O.K., but it’s more something that just gets stuck in your head than something I would listen to regularly.

 

MUSIC VIDEO SONG
4/10 7.25/10

By Leo Kaufman ’24

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