Send "Vampire Weekend " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Sputnikmusic |
 Music fans have some really fucked-up ideas about what constitutes 'reality'. Take the case of Mobb Deep; a band who made an album (1995's The Infamous) that is routinely praised as one of the best ever in its genre for its gritty depiction of the realities of living on the mean streets of New York. Great; except for the fact that Prodigy and Havoc are probably two of the most middle-class people in hip-hop. They met in a public art school - the same one Tony Bennett and Calvin Klein went to! - which Prodigy attended after taking lessons at the dance school his grandmother ran. The only way either of these guys would have seen a crack pipe is if they deliberately sought one out - and why would they do that? Research?And yet, here's Vampire Weekend. Like Mobb Deep, they met at an art school in New York - and that's where the similarities end, because Vampire Weekend actually sing about stuff they know. Why shouldn't a guy who once taught English write a song about an Oxford comma? Why shouldn't some guys who clearly appreciate the likes of Slinger Francisco and Fela Kuti, and enjoy albums like Rhythm of the Saints and So, take a little bit of inspiration from them? Why can't a band who like football enough to wear Chivas USA shirts in their videos name a song after an Arsenal player? Apparently there's something wrong with all that, though, because ever since they arrived in mainstream consciousness, Vampire Weekend have constantly had to court accusations of being 'pretentious' and 'fake'. That's pretty messed up, guys. I mean, when quizzed about the meaning of the word 'contra' and how it applied to this album, rather than claiming any sort of political meaning, they outright admitted that they thought it was a cool word, and they liked the arcade game. Are you seriously gonna act like you'd rather go drinking with Animal Collective than these guys? I guess they're just victims of the internet age. Anybody old enough to remember the heady days of 1996 will remember a little Scottish who were just as humble, just as literate, just as intelligent, and just as up-front and real about singing songs about the art school life they knew. They were taken to the bosom of their homeland so much that they won a fan-voted Brit award a couple of years later, beating the alarmingly successful Steps. Had Vampire Weekend and Contra been released alongside Tigermilk and If You're Feeling Sinister, would anybody even need this lecture?...full text |
| Bbc |
| With their penchant for obscure grammatical references and African pop, Vampire Weekend always offered a little more than your standard indie-rock fare. Their hugely popular 2008 self-titled debut was chock-full of catchy guitar ditties, but while they clearly enjoyed romping through the frothy stuff this super-savvy NYC four were ultimately aiming for something, well, grander. And with cleverly constructed follow-up Contra, they are well on the way to achieving it. Now, this beguiling ten-track work is short at just over 30 minutes long, but immediate it is not. Tasters Horchata and Cousins are probably the most hum-able of the lot. Where the album really comes into its own, however, is in the delicate arrangements and luscious production. It’s not so much the melodies that stick in your head, but certain percussive interludes, Ezra Koenig’s vocal gymnastics (tightly woven into the instrumentation) and the skilfully placed sumptuous string trill refrains. It’s hard to digest at first, but with repeated listens Contra becomes increasingly enjoyable and, in places, quite magical. Musical tricks pop up throughout: the playful climax of White Sky, the romantic Taxi Cab with its Chopin-esque piano, and Giving Up the Gun’s astonishing mix of buzzing guitars, glockenspiel taps, electronics and choral harmonies....full text |
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