Vampire Weekend continues legacy, sound with new album, ‘Contra’
With the release of its self-titled debut in 2008, Vampire Weekend proved that it had something unique and worthy to bring to the table. True to its Columbia University education, the band offered clean-shaven lyrics full of breezy intelligence and sweaters, in addition to the traditional African music that influenced it. The result was semi-hits such as “A-Punk” and “Oxford Comma.” With the January release of “Contra,” its sophomore album, Vampire Weekend revealed that not only is it not giving up its curious sound, but that it’s perfecting it by refusing to hold back.
“Contra” is a bright and clever album with a fitting title and bouncing arrangements. The generally happy music contradicts the emptiness and hopelessness of status, money and suburbia that plague the lyrics. In the album’s eclectic opening, “Horchata,” we witness the change in a relationship, the slip of appearances as “years start to pass, and hearts start to harden.”
A prime example of the album’s message is “California English,” which is arguably the most entertaining song. Vocalist Ezra Koenig uses delightful synthesizers and lyrics featuring organic toothpaste to reveal truths and hypocrisies in some of today’s cultures. For many, lifestyles are merely appearances, and you can only go so far to keep up these facades. This theme – of appearance and its contradiction to reality – is a constant throughout the album.
“Cousins,” the album’s first single lacks the strong lyrics featured in other tracks; however, this does not make it any less enjoyable. It possesses the plucky catchiness necessary to make it an obvious anthem for the next “Rock Band.”
Contra ends with a vaguely heartbreaking orchestral melody about a relationship that ended before it ever began – “I Think Ur a Contra.” Full of promises and desires, some of which oppose each other (“You wanted rock ‘n’ roll, complete control”), one of the lovers is able to cut all ties and leave the narrator confused and distraught with this final moral: “Never pick sides, never choose between two, but I just wanted you .”
Verdict? A strong album worthy of attention and praise. Unlike Vampire Weekend’s debut, this album seems to lack the noticeable weakness of the mundane, as all of its songs battle for attention in their own way.
Recommended Tracks: “Horchata,” “California English,” and “I Think Ur a Contra.”
Posted by Olivia Dowd
on Feb 19 2010. Filed under Reviews.
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