There’s always multiple layers,” (Koenig) says of their songs. “So you can interpret things on one level, and maybe there’s another way to read the lyrics, maybe there’s another way to appreciate the musical references, and to me that’s always gonna be a part of our music. All the music that I like has a sense of humor, and if being sincere means not having a sense of humor, never fucking around, never doing things that are playful or weird, then I’m very uninterested in it.” In the beginning, this meant ratcheting up their preppy style cues and singing about outmoded punctuation. For Contra, it could have been the ’80s pop feel of “Giving Up The Gun,” or writing a MIA-sampling reggae song about a gay relationship like “Diplomat’s Son.” On Modern Vampires, it’s Koenig doing spoken word for a spell on “Ya Hey,” or flaunting a dreamy, Elvis-like inflection toward the end of “Diane Young.