Vampire Weekend - Contra (Review)

Artist: Vampire Weekend
Album: Contra
Label: XL Recordings
Release Date: January 12^th
Genre: Indie
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Rating:

In a world where music has become ubiq­ui­tous, many peo­ple approach new sounds armed with cul­tural, psy­choso­cial, and per­sonal biases. Disarming them of pre­con­ceived notions is one of the most valu­able assets for a band. And what is more dis­arm­ing than a jack-in-the-box tune behind lyrics that rhyme a hot bev­er­age (hor­chata) with a pullover ski mask (bal­a­clava)? Not much. Unless those very lyrics are being vocal­ized by a New Yorker with a sus­pi­ciously British accent. That’s exactly how Vampire Weekend attempts to dis­arm their lis­ten­ers on their sopho­more album, Contra. For those famil­iar with his­tory - or those in their 30s - the name may ring a bell, for it was the title of anti-Sandinista Nicaraguan rev­o­lu­tion­ar­ies in the early 80s. Perhaps Vampire Weekend is try­ing to sound as…revolutionary as possible?

Disarming and rev­o­lu­tion­ary is quite a jux­ta­po­si­tion. Thus Ezra Koenig and com­pany set their goals high, laugh­ing in the face of the famed “sopho­more slump.” Their min­i­mal indie pop has cer­tainly evolved since their first album; where Vampire Weekend drew on the 60s, Contra assim­i­lates the unas­sum­ing and friv­o­lous aspects of the most recent critically-acclaimed scenes. Where their debut asked “who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?”, Koenig now sings “funny how that lit­tle col­lege girl called lan­guage cor­rupt” through auto­tune that bor­ders on taste­less. Could he per­haps be talk­ing about him­self? Vampire Weekend may have dis­cussed crushes on “Campus,” but Contra prefers to echo The Boss on its let’s-get-outta-here hymn “Run.” It makes sense - Koenig and his band­mates are no longer just out of col­lege, but now in their mid-20s. Which could also explain why they titled their album after a rebellion.

The band seem to want to grow up lyri­cally (subject-wise; their lyrics have always been solid) at the same time as they revert to their child­hood musi­cally. The sim­i­lar­i­ties to adver­tis­ing dit­ties can no longer be denied; the melodies are bright and fun, and unfor­tu­nately for the band, approach pre­dictable. Two of the album’s longest songs, placed at the very end, attempt to reverse this trend. However, the Hawaiian tin­kles of “Diplomat’s Son” don’t exactly com­ple­ment the strains of “I Think UR a Contra,” all too sim­i­lar to a falsetto Ian Curtis. And Joy Division would be more cre­ative than “I had a feel­ing once that you and I/ Could tell each other every­thing for two months.”

The thing about Contra is that it’s so dis­arm­ing that you want to like it. You really do, even if you don’t. And if you’re into quirky indie pop, you prob­a­bly will, because it’s a well-written and well-performed album with 36 min­utes worth of self-aware lyrics and sin­cere, non­cha­lant tunes. But for some, it will be com­pa­ra­ble to a musi­cal emoti­con - cute, but not an authen­tic expres­sion. Its clinks and plinks may be enter­tain­ing, and do suc­ceed in dis­ar­ma­ment, far bet­ter than Nicaragua. They do not, how­ever, pro­vide any­thing rev­o­lu­tion­ary to the music world, and Contra is not as good an album as Vampire Weekend want it to be.

Track Listing:
1. Horchata
2. White Sky
3. Holiday
4. California English
5. Taxi Cab
6. Run
7. Cousins
8. Giving Up the Gun
9. Diplomat’s Son
10. I Think Ur A Contra

Similar To: Spoon, Ra Ra Riot, The Shins

Review by: Jordy K.