Vampire Weekend‘s Modern Vampires of the City just debuted at #1 on the Billboard albums chart, and they undoubtedly wanted to celebrate … which at least partially explains their new “Diane Young” video.
In the clip, VW throw a Last Supper/séance soiree and invite some of their pals (including Santigold, Dirty Projectors main man David Longstreth and professionally affected singer Sky Ferreira, to name just a few). Frontman Ezra Koening buddies up with a dude in a balaclava. Drummer Chris Tomson engages in a shouting match with Chromeo. Bassist Chris Baio tenderly caresses an espresso machine. There are sparklers and silly string and champagne and at one point, someone uses a saxophone as a bong … so, y’know, it’s educational too.
In short, “Diane Young” doesn’t make an ounce of sense, but that’s largely beside the point. It’s a series of non-sequiturs (which, come to think of it, sort works in the context of Modern Vampires’ musical and lyrical anachronisms), not to mention an excuse to blow threw a couple crates of expensive bubbly … and, again, given VW’s recent round of successes, well, you can’t fault them for wanting to do that.
“Diane Young” is also an absurdist blast, recalling the oddball excellence of something like Beck’s wacked-out clip, and when you consider that the first version of the video was little more than a series of slo-mo shots of Saabs burning well, then the odder the better.
Then again, perhaps that’s all reading too deeply. Like Koenig’s verbal wordplay (“Diane Young” = “Dying Young”) suggests, this song is very much about embracing the moment, and living each day like it might be your last. So screw the bookish analysis … lets crack some champagne and celebrate today.
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