"Mansard Roof" is the debut single by indie rock band

Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend is an American rock band from New York City, formed in 2006 and currently signed to Columbia Records. The band was formed by lead vocalist and guitarist Ezra Koenig, multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij, drummer Chris Tomson ...

, released on October 23, 2007.

Music video

"Mansard Roof" was the first song from Vampire Weekend's album to have a video. The video was filmed in

Perth Amboy Perth Amboy is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey. Perth Amboy is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 55,436. Perth Amboy has a Hispanic majority population. In the 2010 census, th ...

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. The main scene in the video, directed by Alexis Boling, is set on a yacht and uses still frames. ''

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'' writer Anna Pickard wrote a commentary about the song, discussing the song itself as "one of the happiest, summeriest songs you could ever imagine" and humorously describing the band as "a bunch of nice little boys on a sailboat having some tea and deciding to be in the sixties ..whilst experimenting with African pop rhythms and retro shades."

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

writer, Mark Richardson, commented that in the video "they had some fun with their packaged image as clever Ivy League grads by embracing it completely".

Critical reception

'' Drowned in Sound'' described Koenig's vocals as sounding "as if on a day out from the institution, picking geraniums and wavering with the beauty of the world outside" and said that "whilst utterly unconvincing" that there was "something unwholesomely satisfying about it all". The single was summarised as, "unnervingly gratifying mundane schlop".

described the keyboard as being "set to a perky, almost piping tone, the kind of sunny sound you'd hear in old west-African pop". Drowned in Sound decried the branding of the band as "

afro-pop African popular music (also styled Afropop, Afro-pop or Afro pop), like Music of Africa, African traditional music, is vast and varied. Most contemporary genres of African popular music build on cross-pollination with western popular music. M ...

" and said the single was "far from the 'afro-pop' hyperbole." Click Music described the two tracks as "beautiful, high-brow indie-pop sparklers that feel like sunshine and roll through the body like smoke expelled from Sinatra's lungs" and said that "Mansard Roof" was "jazzy and bright, trimmed with bulging afro-beats" and called "Ladies of Cambridge" "as stellar as the title-track".

Track listing

#"Mansard Roof" – 2:09 #"Ladies of Cambridge" – 2:39

Personnel

Vampire Weekend *

Ezra Koenig Ezra Michael Koenig ( ; born April 8, 1984) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, producer, and internet radio personality. He is best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of indie rock band Vampire Weekend. Additio ...

* Rostam Batmanglij * Christopher Tomson *

Chris Baio Christopher Baio (born October 29, 1984) is an American musician, best known for being the bassist for the New York City-based indie rock band Vampire Weekend. He also releases as a record producer under the mononym Baio, and his debut solo albu ...

Additional musicians *

Jessica Pavone Jessica Pavone is a New York-based violinist, violist and experimental composer. Her jazz-and-classical-inspired avant-garde music combines elements of improvisation and composition. Background Pavone is a graduate of the Hartt School of Musi ...

– violin and viola on "Ladies of Cambridge" Technical *

Emily Lazar Emily B. Lazar is an American mastering engineer. She is the founder, president, and chief mastering engineer of The Lodge, an audio mastering facility that has operated in New York City's Greenwich Village since 1997. She won a Grammy Award for ...

– mastering on "Mansard Roof" *

George Marino George Marino (April 15, 1947 – June 4, 2012) was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s. Biography Marino was born on April 15, 1947, in the New York City borough The Bronx. He at ...

– mastering on "Ladies of Cambridge"

References

External links

''Vampire Weekend'' on XL Recordings
- Album page on record label's site
"Mansard Roof" music video
- as provided by record label on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

2007 songs 2007 debut singles Vampire Weekend songs XL Recordings singles Songs written by Chris Baio Songs written by Ezra Koenig Songs written by Chris Tomson Songs written by Rostam Batmanglij {{2000s-rock-song-stub