When I first heard Cousins, I watched it at seven in the morning on a Thursday in a grainy Youtube video, all strobe light and dancing kids, and I did everything that fantastic and lucky weekend singing to myself the precious few syllables that I understood. “Me and my cousins and you and your cousins I can feel it coming.” And the drums and the drums and the drums and the way the guitar slid and the bassline. The words were different then and unintelligible. It was very breathless. I hear it now (the album version for the first time, tonight) and it is a different animal entirely, but no less stunning and no less breathtaking. The truth of the matter is, in my mind, that Vampire Weekend have not released a single bad song, and I have always had incredible faith that they will never release a bad song. Cousins is the logical continuation of this wonderful streak of utter awesome, in that it is utterly awesome. It was utterly awesome in March when that Youtube video surfaced, and it is utterly awesome right now while I play the album version for perhaps the hundredth time trying to make sense of my feelings. What follows is the best I can do. I truly do not have the words for this band. They will not stop impressing me. Continue reading →