Vampire Weekend bridges the generational divide with cover of Post Malone’s “Sunflower”
Aux Features Music
Vampire Weekend is a band of clean-cut Ivy Leaguers who make beautiful, complex pop-rock. Post Malone is a grungy, face-tattooed rapper that confounds just about everybody older than 26. They’re both massively popular, though it’s unlikely you’ll find a huge crossover in terms of their audiences. Vampire Weekend just might change that, however, as it’s delivered a melodic, heartfelt cover of Post’s “Sunflower,” a cut from the Spider-Verse soundtrack that features Rae Sremmurd’s Swae Lee.
There’s a bit of a wink to the whole thing, as Vampy Weeks just released a single of its own called “Sunflower” (check out the Jonah Hill-directed video here), but it’s a thoughtful cover, upholding the romantic spirit of Post’s original while weaving in the group’s own organic sounds. It even put its own stamp on the song, weaving in guitar melodies from both “Sunflower” and Father Of The Bride’s lead single, “Harmony Hall.”
Hear the BBC 1 Radio interview with the band here, and check out the performance below.
45 Comments
I will never get used to how ugly Post Malone is. He seems to take it in strides though.
Let’s be honest, without the grill and face tats, his best day is looking like Shia LaBeouf left the set of Even Stevens and wondered into the desert.
“Shia, what did we say about the peyote?!“
He also reeks of “insufferable douchebag.”
Uh…huh. How so?
See, I always read him as “kinda annoying stoner dude who stumbled into fame, but is pretty chill about it.”I mean trust me, by Gen Z celebrity standards he’s chill.
I mean, he is 23 and loves guns so… I’m sorry, what was my counter argument?
Post Malone without the face tattoos actually somehow manages to look worse.
He really wanted to get the role of the Joker in ‘Suicide Squad’, but no one out-douchebags Jared Leto.
Well, some people just are ugly 🤷♀️ Not sure why that needs to be pointed out, I think they know they’re not that hot and have heard about it enough.
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Jeez, is that a barbed wire tattoo on his forehead, or a scar from when they administered the frontal lobotomy?
Bruh, NSFW tag please.
I wear my face tattoos ironically.
does anyone not a professional critic actually like Vampire Weekend?
yes, don’t @ me.
I like them too.
I think just this other guy who commented below you. Such a boring, nondescript band.
More proof that a fancy upbringing and an Ivy League education can’t buy you a personality.
Yeah, their first album is my favorite windows-down first-summer-day car music and their third is just great all over.This is awful, though.
I have never met a single person in real life that did. They suck.
This was my first time hearing them but that was really bad and so pretentious ugh.
I love Vampire Weekend. They make fun, beautiful music. All of their albums have gone gold or platinum and they’ve just announced a world tour that has already sold out 15 shows. I’m guessing not all those people buying albums and tickets are professional critics.
I like them well enough. You guys just aren’t in their demographic.
I really like “Harmony Hall” and, yup, that’s it. But I do know some people who dig most of their work. I just totally forgot they existed between “who gives a fuck about an oxford comma?” and the trippy, groovy music video with a snake and Ezra making delicious looking pancakes.
Yes.
Thank God. I always thought it was just me missing something. And my wife. And my friends. And my co-workers.
Speaking as a person over 26, what the fuck is that thing and how do we stop it?
Trust me, you want Post Malone to stay around. He’s the moderate solution.The alternative is…god help us…Tekashi 6ix9ine (well until he catches a life sentence on that RICO case/charge he caught for banging a 13 year old).
Welp. There’s another thing I am now aware of that I wish I wasn’t.
Is there any way we can just sweep of all of this under the rug and have Seals and Crofts back on the charts?
I mean in the modern era the charts are meaningless anyways.We have the internet and Spotify. People can choose to listen to whatever they want, whenever they want.
I still think of Vampire Weekend as kind of a new band.Holy shit I’m old.This sucks
Damn. This comment section is decidedly not chill towards Post nor Vampire Weekend. Growing old must fucking suck.
The A.V. Club commentariat, pre and post kinja, has always had hilariously bad music takes. It’s like everyone stopped liking anything new after their sophomore year in high school.
Dunno about VW, but Post Malone sucks. Full stop.
Y’know, normally I’d dog on Post Malone (and I have, at length), but I see his pic next to those lifeless twerps in Vampire Weekend and I’m like “Y’know what? I’d rather hang with the guy who looks like he got beat-up in a tattoo shop.”
Weezer responds by releasing entirely uninteresting cover of ‘Sunflower’, falls asleep halfway through.
Maybe it was the Spiderman thing, but Sunflower seems like Post’s best song by a mile, especially in this version. Vamp Weeks turns it into a pretty cool soft rock jam.
Oh shit. Of course Ezra is wearing a $300 pair of pink corduroy’s from Rowing Blazers.
Ezra Koenig is 34. Post Malone is 23. How are we defining “generations” again?
Speaking as the old man that I am…Do facial tattoos tend to happen after success has already been achieved, or are they a way for somebody with artistic career ambitions to ‘burn the ships’ in order to prevent the pursuit of a more conservative career path?
Little Column A, little column B.
Little Column A, little column B.
I’m 24 and just seeing a picture of Post Malone makes me annoyed that my generation has given so much money to people who look this fucking stupid
So the guy on the right photo… Wtf, wtf you guy? Tell me those face tats were forced on him in prison, right? Seriously, the one rule of tattoos was:Never. Get. A. Tattoo. Where. A. Judge. Can. See. It.The day he has to appear in court, I’m not sure who I’ll pity more; him or the judge.