Song · Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
“If We Were Vampires” by Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
From the album The Nashville Sound (2017)
“If We Were Vampires” by Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit appears on 17 radio countdowns from 7 stations between 2017 and 2026. It was first released in 2017 on the album The Nashville Sound. Its best result is #1 on the 90.9 The Bridge Top 100 Songs of 2017, and it was voted number one on three countdowns in total. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #10 indie & aaa song of 2017, #195 indie & aaa song of all time and #139 of the '10s.
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"If We Were Vampires" comes from The Nashville Sound, the 2017 album Jason Isbell made with the 400 Unit, and it's all his: Isbell wrote the words and the music alone. Dave Cobb produced and mixed it and sat in on acoustic guitar and percussion next to Isbell's own acoustic and electric playing, while Sadler Vaden added electric guitar, Derry deBorja keyboards, Jimbo Hart bass and Chad Gamble drums.
Amanda Shires brings the strings and the harmony vocal, and her voice curling around Isbell's is the part that stays with you long after the song ends. Matt Ross-Spang and Mark Petaccia engineered it, and the sound is warm and close, the kind of record that lets a lyric sit in the middle of the room and do its quiet work.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 1 | The Current Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN | The Current Top 89 Songs of 2017 | 89 |
| 2017 | 1 | 90.9 The Bridge Kansas City, MO | 90.9 The Bridge Top 100 Songs of 2017 | 90 |
| 2017 | 3 | WFUV New York, NY | WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2017 | 90 |
| 2017 | 5 | Lightning 100 Nashville, TN | Lightning 100 Top 200 Songs of 2017 | 200 |
| 2017 | 1 | WXPN Philadelphia, PA | WXPN Year in Review: Top 50 Songs of 2017 | 50 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 142 | The Current | The Current's 893 Essential Songs | 892 |
| 2020 | 96 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2022 | 11 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Colorado Sound Songs of All Time | 1055 |
| 2023 | 8 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of All Time | 909 |
| 2024 | 209 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years | 1049 |
| 2024 | 27 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs of the 21st Century | 1055 |
| 2024 | 5 | WXPN | WXPN The 885 Greatest Songs of the 21st Century (2024) | 885 |
| 2025 | 2 | The Current | 893 Essential Songs of The Current: 2005 to Now | 893 |
| 2025 | 67 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the 21st Century | 909 |
| 2025 | 16 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the 21st Century (So Far) | 714 |
| 2026 | 85 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
| 2026 | 11 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs You Discovered on The Colorado Sound | 1055 |
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