Brightest Young Things

John Foster takes music packaging very seriously. He has deconstructed the design of the recording industry through his personal work and his books, Maximum Page Design (HOW), New Masters of Poster Design (Rockport) and the upcoming For Sale: Innovative Solutions in Packaging Design (HOW) as well as a monograph of Sub Pop’s Art Director, Jeff Kleinsmith, slated for publication by the label in 2008.

He will be poking and prodding various albums on a weekly basis so please be sure to keep an eye out!

This week’s victims:

Vampire Weekend “s/t”

Is it worth listening to no matter what it looks like? I am far too jaded these days to care about the hype behind a band one way or the other. However, I do appreciate someone going against the tide of the times in their approach. Reading about Vampire Weekend (easy to do on these here interwebs) I often saw bands that I was extremely fond of name-checked. Orange Juice in particular. I even enjoy a large portion of Paul Simon's "Graceland" so it would seem that no blogger could succeed in keeping from this disc. Once I did take it for a spin I was left wondering where the connection was lost. I enjoy a lot of those bands because I also enjoy the influences they were drawing on (the same reason I kept giving Johnny Clegg a chance - lord help me! And the same reason I play Hugh Masekela every week.) Vampire Weekend seems to be drawing from Peter Gabriel (randomly inserted in “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwasaa”), Simon and Talking Heads directly and only listening to the originals long after the fact. They missed the key to all of them though - rhythm and melody lads - rhythm and melody. When I listen to this record I often find myself waiting for the "song" to happen. Where I think the band excels is actually the influence of old school street corner doo wop apparent in “Mansard Roof" and “Oxford Comma” among others and it is the Tommy Roe style breakbeats straight from AM radio that make the songs swing and nothing west of the Congo. The group is young. I hope they think a little more about what they are communicating and hone in on their strengths and realize there is a long long way to go. As Chuck D would say (especially about a band like this): "Don't Believe the Hype."

Credit: “Design by Rostam Batmanglij, Phil Lee, and Asher Sarlin”

Any signs of creative interference in the design process by the artist? You know it! When Rostam isn’t busy playing organ, chamberlin, piano, harpsichord, guitar, vocal harmonies, drum and synth programming and shaker – he is mucking up the design.

Does the look fit the sound? Is any band more mis-named than this one? I find the moniker attention getting and intriguing but it gives little indication of what is to channel from your ear to your brain. In fact, it leads you into the opposite direction. Sunny shuffling afro pop = Vampire Weekend??? The band is also packaged in a manner more in keeping with their name than their sound. An appropriate image would be an outdoor dance contest from the 50s rather than the chandelier-clad ceiling of a hipster Halloween get-together. At least that photo (and lack of title on the release proper) has some visual interest. The remainder of the packaging is numbingly clunky and boring. It is staggering to think that a release like this can be assembled post 1989 and the wide introduction of the Mac to the design business. If this was self-released in 84 I might be more forgiving (nah!)

I felt compelled to put the interior tray in the photo as I genuinely cannot recall a record with a push like this (in Target for 8.99 first week of release!!!!) having such an embarrassingly amateurish layout - ugh. I also have to add that the band took the time to add lyrics to each song on the booklet which tickles me as this is the weakest disc lyrically I have bought in ages. Ah youth…

Final score (out of 10): 3.0

If you were lucky enough to grab a ticket early you can see Vampire Weekend with Sam Rosen (nice and dry New York Rangers sportscaster - not so great ironically named musical act) at The Rock and Roll Hotel. I turned down a chance to go so let me know how it went.