Who up listening to “Vampire Empire” rn?

When Big Thief released their long-awaited studio version of their song “Vampire Empire” on July 19, many fans sank their teeth right in, while others immediately spit it out. 

If you listen to music — like at all — then you probably know about the indie folk band Big Thief. And if you were present on TikTok at all in the past year, then you’re probably aware of the song in question. 

The band’s live performance of Vampire Empire on The Late Show in February went viral on the clock app. As a result, the audio from the band’s performance amassed almost 16 thousand videos of its own. 

For months, fans of the formerly unreleased song survived off of live recordings since the band began performing it in 2022 during live sets following the release of Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You. And let me tell you, everyone became ravenous for more — an official version that listeners could have some ownership over. And ultimately, something that could be added to their failed situationship playlists on Spotify…sorry. 

It’s easy to see why this song had so many people, myself included, in a chokehold. The surreal lyrics and their intensity are what make this song really shine. Adrienne Lenker uses the contrast of life and death to define what a “vampire empire” is. The first verse, “Watching TV tired, bleeding on the bed,” compared to the later verse, “You lay upon my pillow and you open like a flower,” illustrates this relationship’s contradictory and confusing nature. Lenker poetically wavers between the intoxication of this kind of love and its lethal thorns. Listening to this song makes you feel like you’re in a constant battle. 

When the studio version was finally released, you would think the world of music would be all sunshine and rainbows, right? Nope. Changes made to the song left many “Vampire Empire” die-hards disappointed while others came to its defense. In a nutshell, the internet was torn. 

TikTok posts criticizing the recording flooded the app that once praised it. “What did they do to this song,” the user @t0bias.tv asked. Another person under the user @tatezdead said that the song didn’t even resemble the live version people knew and loved, following up with, “I wish artists would just keep unreleased songs to themselves if they know the song is going to sound totally different because I did not wait months for THIS.”

The changes that these people and many more were so outraged about came mainly from missing lyrics. Instead of singing, “Well, I walked into your dagger for the last time in a row,” Lenker nixes the last three words and takes a pause before going into the next line: “It’s like trying to start a fire with matches in the snow.” Another lyric, “I’m the fish and she’s the gills,” was omitted as well. 

Other criticisms stemmed from the absence of the flute presence in live performances or that the recorded version didn’t seem to have enough emotion. 

Big Thief responded to fan outrage in a comment on the announcement Instagram post from July 19. The band said, “The live version you may prefer exists, and now another version exists…songs are vessels for the expressions of our present selves, and not highly manicured concoctions polished to be consumed based on demand.”

Fans felt entitled to a studio version identical to the viral live performance when, in reality, these versions can never be fully replicated in a studio. Nor should Big Thief be expected to do so. 

In fact, the varying experiences cultivated by the live versions and the studio recording add to the unique relationship listeners can have with “Vampire Empire.” You can listen to the song in your room a million times over but still be subjected to a completely different experience when hearing it live at a show. In a sense, these changes preserve the cultural phenomena that were the live performances of “Vampire Empire.”

The public’s reaction to the studio recording is also a lesson on the blurred lines between an artist’s autonomy and the pressure to create something to please their audience. What once was a medium for people to express themselves has now turned into an industry where artists feel controlled by listeners. Although many of us may be guilty of having a parasocial relationship with that one “comfort musician,” that doesn’t mean their sole purpose is to feed us what we want. The sentiment that artists owe us anything just because we consume their music defeats the very purpose of what music creation is. It’s about self-expression, taking risks, and creating simply to create, not following strict rules to produce something that caters to the masses. 

So enjoy — or appreciate at the very least — the new version of “Vampire Empire” in all its raw and heart-wrenching glory. The fact that there are so many versions of this masterpiece is a gift, if nothing else.