[Review] Vampire Weekend – ‘Contra’

Over the past couple of months, since ‘Contra’ was first announced, hype has exponentially grown from a steady stream to a crescendo of articles previews and videos which have filled the blogosphere over the past week.

A lot rests on ‘Contra’ for Vampire Weekend, with so much speculation and anticipation it could be suggested that no matter how good the LP turns out to be it’ll never quite be good enough for the fans and critics who hold the band in such a high stead.

Vampire Weekend, who hail from New York and are still relatively new, only forming in 2006, have seen a meteoric rise to fame thanks to their self titled debut album which was released almost two years ago to the day and featured gems such as ‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa’, ‘Oxford Comma’ and ‘A-Punk’.

This steep rise has seen the band produce a love or tolerate relationship from music fans. You’re either a fan who still listens to Vampire Weekend’s debut album extensively, waited with baited breath when the countdown time hit zero on the bands official website in October and loves ‘Cousins’ and it’s quirky video or you’re one of the people who doesn’t mind VW’s stuff but fails to really understand all the fuss caused by the band. Either way it’s time to find out if ‘Contra’ lives up to the hype or follows in the footsteps of many second albums and fall by they wayside.

The LP opens with ‘Horchata’, the first track to be previewed from ‘Contra’ back in October. ‘Horchata’ could best be described as a safe song. Upon it’s release into VW fans ears the resounding feedback was good with an underlying feeling that the track didn’t offer much progression from the bands debut album.

Continuing from there is ‘White Sky’ another track which follows a similar pattern to ‘Horchata’.

‘Holiday’, ‘California English’ and ‘Cousins’ offer more of a refreshing sound but managed to keep that distinctive Vampire Weekend sound burning bright.

The album takes an odd but brilliant plight toward it’s final 34th minute. Rather than starting strong and finishing weak ‘Contra’ does the polar opposite and saves the best until last.

The funny thing is though, upon first hearing the album I was very sceptical about some of the later songs which follow ‘Cousins’ in the track listing, they felt different and weren’t like anything on VW’s debut. It wasn’t until numerous listens that I stopped trying to compare new to old and took these very different song’s for what they should be taken as, a progression of Vampire Weekend, who now offer more strength in depth and a wider range of sounds and influences.

For clarification the tracks I’m referring to are ‘Giving Up The Gun’ an old track which has been perfectly updated to envelope VW’s new sound, which now includes more of an electronic sound with the addition of a number of different sounds and sample, ‘Diplomat’s Son’ featuring an underlying bass and a tune from 4:25 to 5:10 which sounds very much like the theme tune to the brilliant QI (don’t you think?) and ‘I Think UR A Contra’ the perfect end to the album which feels like a ‘To Be Continued…’ for the bands next piece of work. These three tracks are my three favourite from the album and the three which I feel push Vampire Weekend’s sound forward the most.

Production has really been upped on ‘Contra’, as previously stated there are a bevy of electronic sounds which add to the depth of some tracks. The influence from Batmanglij side project Discovery can be heard throughout.

Overall ‘Contra’ starts where VW’s first album left off but by the end offers a newer more progressed sound . I’d say that’s pretty much the perfect way to progress not only your music but what your fans and listeners should expect, right?

The album isn’t as immediately listenable as the bands debut and although it will be, the two albums really shouldn’t be compared side by side. Give ‘Contra’ your time and attention and you’ll be sure to reap the rewards!

My only gripe is that at just over half an hour it’s a pretty short insight into how Vampire Weekend have progressed, with a couple more songs we could have had near perfection. I guess that’s just the way the record’s are going these days, shorter singles, shorter albums, less frequently which kinda sucks to the millions of paying music fans all over the world.

‘Contra’ is out on Monday (January 11th) in the UK and Tuesday (January 11th) in the US. You can listen to the album in full on Vampire Weekend’s MySpace page, see the links below.

Related Posts

[Preview] Stream Vampire Weekend’s ‘Contra’
[MP3] Vampire Weekend – ‘White Sky’
[Video] Vampire Weekend – ‘Cousins’
Vampire Weekend – ‘Horchata’