Vampire Weekend’s “Harmony Hall” is just as good as expected

After a long wait, we get a track that is everything we could have expected, which is both satisfying and disappointing

After more than five years of silence, during which one member went solo, another created anime, and they sang with Bernie Sanders, Vampire Weekend are finally back.

This is a big deal because, since their inception more than ten years ago, VW have had a near perfect run of three albums. They were instrumental in the birth of the global sound that is the best thing that happened in music this century. They made the left-field mainstream, becoming the first ever band to get a number one album on an indie-label. Yes, we love VW.

So the good news is that the new song is everything you’d expect: sunny pop with a hint of an African influence via Graceland, humorous yet deep lyrics (we’re guessing, since it’s mostly enigmatic) and a sound that moves from delicate to thumping, then back again. Even the video clip, with a gang of hipster guest stars like Jonah Hill, Danielle Haim and Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes, is typical. And therein lies the problem: with every previous album, VW pushed themselves in more ambitious directions, and we’d grown accustomed to expecting better things. It’s certainly good to have them back, but we’re hoping we also get back the usual sense of adventure with the upcoming album.