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A special Christmas review of noteworthy books, music and TV.

Modern Vampires of the City, by Vampire Weekend. The chamber-pop quartet’s third LP finds the band in a more introspective state than the Afropop-infused bounce of its earlier albums. If the effect is a sometimes sleepier sound, it also results in the group’s most stylistically varied set of songs. Ezra Koenig’s dense lyrics remain sneakily profound, but here he largely turns his attention away from the group’s usual Salingeresque prep-school characters and toward matters of faith.