<P> Modern Vampires of the City is the 2013 third studio album by American indie rock band Vampire Weekend . The group began to write songs for the record during soundchecks on the supporting concert tour for their 2010 album Contra . After a period in which each member explored individual musical projects, they regrouped and continued working on Modern Vampires of the City in 2011 . With no deadline in mind, the band brought in an outside record producer for the first time, Ariel Rechtshaid, to record the album . </P> <P> With Modern Vampires of the City, Vampire Weekend attempted to depart from the African - influenced indie pop style of their previous records . Broadly experimental, the album's sound was the result of a variety of unconventional recording assets, including pitch shifting . Subjects explored on the record include characters with adult responsibilities, reflections on growing old, mortality, and religious faith . Vampire Weekend titled Modern Vampires of the City after a lyric in the 1990 Junior Reid song "One Blood" and chose a Neal Boenzi photograph of the 1966 New York City smog event as the album cover, citing their haunting qualities as the reason for using them . </P> <P> Modern Vampires of the City was released on May 14, 2013, by XL Recordings and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, becoming Vampire Weekend's second consecutive number - one album in the United States . It received widespread critical acclaim and was named the year's best record by several publications; it was voted second in the annual Pazz & Jop critics poll . By December 2014, the album had sold 505,000 copies in the US . </P> <P> The success of Vampire Weekend's second album, Contra (2010), established the group as "one of the past decade's great indie - rock success stories ." By the time their world tour for Contra ended, the band realized they had not taken a break in nearly five years . During the break, each member pursued individual projects: Baio performed DJ sets and scored the Bob Byington film Somebody Up There Likes Me, Batmanglij recorded solo material and produced tracks for Das Racist and spent time traveling India with three friends, and Koenig collaborated with Major Lazer . Koenig had broken up with his girlfriend shortly before the release of Contra and subsequently moved out of their shared apartment in New York . Feeling "weird and aimless", Koenig attempted to stay in Los Angeles but he returned East after four months . </P>

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