Vampire Weekend released their debut album this week just in time before their mega-giga-no-hopes-even-for-paid-reserves-show at RNR next week, and God Forbid we were not to review it.
Rating system
0 stars - Complete and utter garbage
1 star - Best just not to ever press play, save your ears for another day
2 stars - Not completely atrocious, but one you'll probably forget about as soon as it's over
3 stars - Good, but not great, likely with some excellent songs and others you'll skip right through
4 stars - Damn good album, one you'll definitely want to enjoy again and again
5 stars - Instant Classic
4 stars for this one
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Beirut, Voxtrot, Peter, Bjorn & John, what do all of those band have in common? Yes, they were all massively hyped on these here internets, several of them before they were able to properly release a debut album. They’ve met varying degrees of success, but these bands will all likely be afterthoughts 5 years from now. In the indie-rock blog world these days, expectations become unreal, it’s almost impossible to find sustained success and a backlash is always just around the corner. So let’s welcome our newest entrant into this fun little music world of ours. Say hello to Vampire Weekend.
I’m sure some of you are already pretty familiar with these guys. These boys from Columbia University showed up out of nowhere last April when they sent blue CD-Rs to several of the most-read blogs out there, and we’ve hearing about them ever since. The buzz has gotten so deafening and has been carrying on for so long that the backlash started months ago, hilarious since their debut album wasn’t officially released until this past Tuesday. So how can a band in this situation possibly succeed? Well, in the end, it comes down to one thing and one thing only, great music, and Vampire Weekend delivers just that.
This album may not forge any new musical paths, but it’s quite good, especially for a debut from a band that’s had ridiculous pressure put on them to live up to the hype. Vampire Weekend takes a variety of sounds including Paul Simon from his Graceland days, late-era Talking Heads, a bit of old school punk and ska and a dash of The Decemberists and mashes them up into a formula that, while drawing heavily on influences, is very much a unique sound. Take their latest single, “A-Punk” for example, which for the first forty seconds, sounds like any other song that draws from late-70s pop-punk. Then out of nowhere, the guitars and bass drop out only to be replaced by synthesizers playing woodwind-like melodies creating the backdrop for an incredible chorus. I simply can’t get enough of this song.
“Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” builds around a jangly guitar, African-inspired drums and an incredibly funky bass line to create a ridiculously catchy song that doesn’t have to shove chorus down your throat over and over to stick in your head. The tongue-in-cheek lyrics about wearing sweaters and the United Colors of Bennetton are just icing on the cake. The band gets downright orchestral on “M79” with a violin riff that sounds straight out of a Beethoven symphony and then turns the tables completely a few songs later with the Interpol-inspired guitar work that drives “Walcott.”
The album definitely isn’t flawless, and the song “One (Blake’s Got a New Face)” is barely listenable (I’ve found it’s better just to skip right through it and move on). However there is something to like about almost every other song and the album manages to stay incredibly dynamic from song-to-song while keeping the sound all under one umbrella of Vampire Weekend. The fame that’s bound to follow this album will be a true test for these guys, but even if they stumble in the future, at least they managed to get us one damn fine album.
Four Stars
God loves a cheerful giver.
"One damn fine album" indeed. Fuck the naysayers.
definitely a great album. different from a lot of the stuff being produced right now. Very Paul Simon-ish...
I will be reviewing the packaging etc... this week so keep an eye out.
just really really really disappointed you would put beirut in the same sentence as...
....(can't be in the same sentence)....
...Clap Your Hands Say Ehhhh, Voxtrot, and Peter, Bjorn & John, who, yes, all will be be afterthoughts 5 years from now.
you must not have seen beirut live....
to see beirut and their gloriousness:
I was originally going to trash these guys for being Columbia prepsters weekending as indie-Rockers, but seeing as two of my younger brothers and many of my closest friends and esteemed colleagues are Ivy League educated.
So instead, I'll get right down to the meat and potatos. Vampire Weekend sound like the kind of music that'd be playing at a garden party. Inoffensive, a bit "world" but not too rhythmic that it might make people go into dancing fits. Talking Heads and Orange Juice incorporated Afrobeat and polyrhythms the right way: they understood that while it may be annoying to play the same two notes for 6 minutes, you have to remember that the song is more important than the person playing it. Moreover, those two groups were really funky.
Vampire Weekend aren't horrible, but they're not great either. But the most insulting thing about this group is the fact that they've described their sound as "Upper West Side Soweto" and have songs like "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa." What gives these lads the right to trivialize the suffering of blacks and coloreds in South Africa under apartheid? And kwassa kwassa? Who the hell do you think you are?