8 Uses Of Auto-Tune That Are Actually OK

Vampire Weekend's first two albums arrived with a sound so perfectly distinct (the band wryly termed it "Upper West Side Soweto") that it became hard for them to outgrow the box that people had painted them into. Ezra Koenig's upbeat voice instantly became associated with the preppy, energetic image that the maturing band were attempting to move past.

So, for the album "Modern Vampires of the City", they teamed up with producer Ariel Rechtstaid and used his bag of vocal enhancement tools to give Ezra's vocals new textures. These are especially noticeable album standout track "Step". A subtle use of auto-tune and a technique called “formant-shifting” give Ezra Koenig’s vocals a meek, breathy quality which is especially noticeable in the song's refrain.