Vampire Weekend - Contra

When Vampire Weekend first hopped and skipped jauntily into the public consciousness with their re-awakening of African pop rhythms, their style of music hadn’t graced western radio stations, stereo’s and personal music players since Paul Simon’s Graceland in the mid 80’s. Vampire Weekend produced a record that was smart, fun, a little oddball and one of our favourites of the year. They successfully managed to demonstrate that it was still possible for indie guitar bands to pull a rabbit out of the hat and create something a little inventive.

Now step forward version two. For Contra is very much version two of the previous template, but with many a twist and surprising complication. Those who didn’t like the debut will not like this. Simple as that. There are still afrobeat rhythms a plenty, baskets of frisky frolicsomeness, and intellectual bags full of ideas. However, with these ideas the band has expanded their repertoire with hints of other musical forms such as reggae, classical and electronica. They even dare to slow things down to produce a slightly emotionally warped atmospheric ballad on I Think Ur A Contra.

The musical madness that Vampire Weekend bring is best displayed on the two and a half minutes of the indecipherable California English where violins, choir like backing vocals and Ezra Koenig’s almost unintelligible chopped up echo vocal is balanced precariously against the background of a tropical carnival stomp. The single Cousins is probably the most easily digested song on first listen, even if it flies along at such a rate of knots it almost falls over itself. There’s a lot of beats per minute on that one. Giving Up The Gun on the other hand seems almost passive with Koeg sounding downbeat as he sighs a chorus of “ Your swords grown old and rusty,” and restrained synth sounds and female backing vocals layer on top of the chugging bass and tribal marching drums.

Ultimately Contra is not as immediate as Vampire Weekend’s debut. There’s no instantly memorable Oxford Comma or A-Punk here so cross over potential may be lower, but it is so full of ideas that it becomes a more rewarding listen with each play. Back at the end of 2008 we questioned how the band could follow up their debut, suggesting that the groups chirpy sound may wear thin after a short burst. Quite brilliantly rather than Contra wearing thin quickly, it beefs things up. The band have managed to carry forward the sound from their debut and reinvent it at the same time. Clever.

Contra is released on the 11th January 2010.

Vampire Weekend - Cousins

First out of the traps in terms of big releases for 2010 is Vampire Weekend with their album Contra. Following the free giveaway of Horchata the first single proper is Cousins which sees Vampire Weekend buzzing along with an almost cartoonish abandon and possibly more beats per minute than any other song that will be released next year. It fizzles with the kind of fun that will make detractors hate them even more, but should keep fans eager for the album which follows on January 12th. It’s going to be interesting to watch drunk indie kids dance to this two minutes and thirty seconds of zany structured mayhem. We hear rumours of ballads on the forthcoming album, which will be needed just to catch our breath.

Vampire Weekend + The XX @ Brighton Concorde

What do you do when you’ve just released a highly acclaimed album that is almost perfect in its minimalist execution ? You go and play the songs live in an equally superb manner. Or at least that’s what you do if the name of your band is The XX.

Stepping in as support act to Vampire Weekend for this one off club date in Brighton The XX (pictured) line up stage front with two bright white XX’s glowing from black square boxes flanking each side of the stage. Their appearance is of burgeoning gloomy goths; all baggy black nondescript clothing with chains. They could be the ‘couldn’t be bothered’ friends of The Horrors. And whilst their music is darkly enigmatic, it bears more resemblance to something from the Martin Hannett school of Factory production than any Fields Of The Nephilim record. Perfectly seductive and subdued past-bedtime boy girl vocals nestle with awkward brooding Robert Smith like guitars and heavy electronic beats that verge towards dubstep. From the opening two songs of Intro and Crystallised it is clear that the XX are able to replicate their studio sound perfectly live. The recordings have plenty of space in between the urban melancholy notes meaning that played live there is nothing missing - no tacky orchestral strings played from keyboards where on record a live string section was used, no limp attempts at backing vocals to replicate multi vocal overdubs. The minimalism sounds strangely fuller in the live context. Throughout the XX remain aloof but even that seems perfect for the music, just a thank you in between songs which dual vocalists Romy and Oliver even manage to harmonise together at one point. A unique cover version of Womack and Womack’s Teardrops seals the deal. Wonderfully understated both musically and in terms of performance, it makes us love the album even more.

By modern standards Vampire Weekend are doing pretty well. They nearly have album No.2 in the bag, even although their last album is still wriggling around in the best of lists from last year. The groups infectious tunes and quirkiness are probably the reasons why UK audiences took them to their hearts so much last year. Despite their very smart creative nuance that could have easily come from the UK, lead singer Ezra is at pains to point out from the stage that “Contrary to popular belief, we’re not English.” However, we‘re not sure if there are many English bands that would feature a lanky drummer dressed in a basketball vest and a lead singer that wears a pair of shorts and a neat cotton shirt to play live. “A lot has changed since we played here last, we’ve got a backdrop now,” Ezra jokes, referencing the banner of their debut album cover behind them, and it is mainly songs from this album that the band play with just a few new tracks thrown in to test the audience. In fairness the new songs sound as quirky and inventive as the old ones taking tropical, African and dance rhythms as influences but adding more diversity. The set starts slowly with the oddball Mansard Roof and gradually builds, the crowd moving from head nodding appreciation to bouncing and dancing, particularly when the band let loose with A Punk. In the course of an hour Ezra turns from a nicely turned out preppy looking dude to a sweating, leg twitching rock beast. Or near as damn it. They end with Oxford Comma before returning to encore with the sprightly Walcott and leave the audience happy from a highly competent if largely forgettable show.

Album Of The Year 2008 #5 - Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

In the year when the British skinny jeans indie rock boys finally ran out of steam with their one idea, it was left to cardigan wearing Ivy League graduates Vampire Weekend from the USA to show that boys with guitars could still do something inventive.

Vampire Weekend’s self titled debut album is a smart, fun, infectious and ever so slightly ridiculous kaleidoscopic mix of Afrobeat, indie-funk and post-punk that triumphs with its cocktail of forms. Of course this is not the first time that African influences have been taken so far into the mainstream, Paul Simon got there years ago with Graceland, but this album still feels highly refreshing. Vampire Weekend has energy written through its core and it is praise indeed when one can say that this album sounds unlike anything else released this year.

God knows how they will follow this one up, Breaking More Waves suspects that it is going to be difficult as their chirpy clever rhythmic pop may wear thin after a short burst, but for now in 2008 Vampire Weekend is our fifth favourite album. Here's A Punk from the record.