Vampire Weekend
Contra (Bundled Version)
(XL)

Sophomore slump? Check. After a stellar debut from this NYC foursome, it is a disappointment to be let down by their follow-up, Contra. Again, rave reviews on “hip”, “in-the-know”, music websites had me anticipating this release with glee only to be left scratching my head by Exra Koening’s lyrics rhyming “horchata” to “balaclava” …a bit of a stretch in trying to be too clever? “Holiday” has Rostam Batmanglij’s keyboards darting about like a cross between calypso and carnival. In fact, the tone of the album would set the perfect backdrop for drinking margaritas with Jimmy Buffett in the Caribbean over his cheeseburgers. Although hints of this direction can be traced on their self-titled debut, I could not anticipate such heavy reliance on big top keyboards and less dependency on guitars. Keyboards can be mistaken for Mexican brass on “Run” while I’m hard-pressed to know if any actual percussion was used throughout or if a majority of the record’s beats were provided by electronics as Chris Tomson is sounding more robotic as the LP plays on. “Giving Up the Gun” finds some of the swagger from their debut and “Cousins” is a solid pick for first single with scatterbrain guitar and Tomson’s stop-start beat and furious fills. Hardly enough though to save the record from the brink of despondency. Glad to have caught them on their tour for the first record as I don’t think I can stomach any of Contra’s material live.

-James


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