You know what I like? I like concept albums. I like when an album is truly a sum of its parts, without one track outshining any other as merely a “single” that is meant to sell you on the rest. I mean, okay, there are exceptions to the rule; I’ll fully admit that I originally bought Aqua’s “Aquarium” because of “Barbie Girl” and Savage Garden’s self-titled debut for “I Want You” (after seeing them perform it during Nickelodeon’s Kid Choice Awards), but I eventually discovered that those albums were straight up bangers with every single track (to me). No, really!
Regardless, albums without a cohesive story or theme tend to be like a salad bar; you take what you want and leave the rest. Which is perfectly fine, as I really do enjoy plenty of albums like that, but to me there’s truly something to be said for an album which is an all around “experience” from beginning to end. Especially in these days of streaming music where it does seem like, for the most part, “whole” albums take a bit of a backseat to being merely a collection of random songs or just releasing singles instead. Some like croutons, some don’t, y’know? Continue reading
“The Sun Also Sets” may not contain the usual fang-in-cheek pageantry which most of Vampire Step-Dad’s recent releases have been known for utilizing, in terms of an opening sitcom-like sketch and/or a centralized theme, but it still has some serious melodic bite regardless. Which is to say that, while you won’t find many blood pumping guitar-laden tracks on this album, the synth-fueled melancholy melodies on here are plentiful and reaffirm Vampire Step-Dad as an accomplished maestro of emotions.
This album contains ideal mood music for the Halloween season and is also quite the nostalgic throwback to similar ambient releases of the past which were meant to be played outside your window for any trick-or-treater passing by to maybe think twice about knocking on your door. On top of that, it’s the perfect showcase of Vampire Step-Dad’s incredibly talented ability to easily “change the channel” on his music and deliver something entirely different, and unexpected, but welcomed all the same.
In a recent 
Today is Father’s Day and I therefore thought that now would be as great a time as any to shine the ol’ Synth Spotlight on everyone’s favorite supernatural surrogate patriarch: 
I love a good gimmick and Vampire-Step Dad, or Vlad Legosi as his kids call him, is killing it right now with this one. I think it can be explained nicely by just giving the first track, “Thursday at 7,” a listen. Basically it’s a nice tongue in cheek nod to corny sitcoms of years past but, instead of a 
Watermelon Banzai 