8.5/10
When Horchata was released as a free download back in October last year, it was met with a huge “meh” from the music industry. Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut was so brimming with creativity and youthful energy that to see them just completely do the same thing on the first track released from Contra was alarming. While not a bad track, Horchata predicted a band trying to recreate exactly what had made them famous in the first place on their sophomore album. Fortunately Horchata only acts as a gateway song, a transition if you will from Vampire Weekend to the engrossing Contra.
While not as immediate as the first album, Contra plays as a better paced and more thought out album. First single Cousins is similar in style to late seventies Elvis Costello songs such as Pump It and Radio Radio. Played at a very fast pace, the track is the most grabbing the first time you listen to the album. Ezra Koenig’s lyrics also tend to mimic Costello’s cynical observational style to a certain extent throughout the album (“The elderly sales clerk won't eye us with suspicion,
The holy motor corporation is giving it's permission” from White Sky).
While Contra is influenced by English artists such as Elvis Costello and The Clash, Vampire Weekend still manage to maintain the afro-pop qualities that made their first album so different to other albums being released at the time. White Sky is the closest thing here to the breakout song A-Punk, starting modestly with glitchy electronics and drum beats, until Chris Tomson’s drums enter the piece. The chorus is probably the catchiest thing on the album, even if it is just Koenig producing some impressive vocal yelps. White Sky also reveals an interest in sampling and looping which continues throughout the rest of the album (most noticeably in Diplomat’s Son where the M.I.A. track Hussel is sampled).
As an album Contra is set up in direct contrast with The Clash’s album Sandinista!, referencing the right-wing militant groups which were set up in opposition to the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua during the seventies and eighties Disappointingly nothing on Contra matches the sheer lunacy of the very disco Sandinista! song Ivan Meets G.I. Joe. However you could put that down to nit-picking, as not many bands could produce a song that crazy.
2008 marked the year that Kings of Leon crossed over from indie-heroes to mainstream stadium-rockers; and Vampire Weekend seem set to make the same sort of transition in 2010. Unlike Kings of Leon though, Vampire Weekend didn’t resort to compromise when it comes to their songs (please ignore the auto-tune on California English, it’s actually quite good). If released as a single, Giving up the Gun seems like the song capable of pushing Vampire Weekend to the top of the charts, and of announcing indie as the style to start of the new decade.
Contra takes a few listens to fully understand, it’s a complicated album. Vampire Weekend places a higher emphasis here on atmosphere and the little things you don’t notice the first few listens, however there are still enough pop gems to keep them firmly in the musical spotlight.
Essential Tracks: Cousins, White Sky, Giving up the Gun, I Think Ur A Contra
Contra is in stores now.
Cousins :
When Horchata was released as a free download back in October last year, it was met with a huge “meh” from the music industry. Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut was so brimming with creativity and youthful energy that to see them just completely do the same thing on the first track released from Contra was alarming. While not a bad track, Horchata predicted a band trying to recreate exactly what had made them famous in the first place on their sophomore album. Fortunately Horchata only acts as a gateway song, a transition if you will from Vampire Weekend to the engrossing Contra.While not as immediate as the first album, Contra plays as a better paced and more thought out album. First single Cousins is similar in style to late seventies Elvis Costello songs such as Pump It and Radio Radio. Played at a very fast pace, the track is the most grabbing the first time you listen to the album. Ezra Koenig’s lyrics also tend to mimic Costello’s cynical observational style to a certain extent throughout the album (“The elderly sales clerk won't eye us with suspicion,
The holy motor corporation is giving it's permission” from White Sky).
While Contra is influenced by English artists such as Elvis Costello and The Clash, Vampire Weekend still manage to maintain the afro-pop qualities that made their first album so different to other albums being released at the time. White Sky is the closest thing here to the breakout song A-Punk, starting modestly with glitchy electronics and drum beats, until Chris Tomson’s drums enter the piece. The chorus is probably the catchiest thing on the album, even if it is just Koenig producing some impressive vocal yelps. White Sky also reveals an interest in sampling and looping which continues throughout the rest of the album (most noticeably in Diplomat’s Son where the M.I.A. track Hussel is sampled).
As an album Contra is set up in direct contrast with The Clash’s album Sandinista!, referencing the right-wing militant groups which were set up in opposition to the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua during the seventies and eighties Disappointingly nothing on Contra matches the sheer lunacy of the very disco Sandinista! song Ivan Meets G.I. Joe. However you could put that down to nit-picking, as not many bands could produce a song that crazy.
2008 marked the year that Kings of Leon crossed over from indie-heroes to mainstream stadium-rockers; and Vampire Weekend seem set to make the same sort of transition in 2010. Unlike Kings of Leon though, Vampire Weekend didn’t resort to compromise when it comes to their songs (please ignore the auto-tune on California English, it’s actually quite good). If released as a single, Giving up the Gun seems like the song capable of pushing Vampire Weekend to the top of the charts, and of announcing indie as the style to start of the new decade.
Contra takes a few listens to fully understand, it’s a complicated album. Vampire Weekend places a higher emphasis here on atmosphere and the little things you don’t notice the first few listens, however there are still enough pop gems to keep them firmly in the musical spotlight.
Essential Tracks: Cousins, White Sky, Giving up the Gun, I Think Ur A Contra
Contra is in stores now.
Cousins :
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