VAMPIRE WEEKEND - Contra
Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 04:00PM 
I may not be the first person to make this comparison, but the hubbub over Vampire Weekend reminds me an awful lot of how people viewed (and still view, really) The Police: as privileged white dudes making image-conscious, watered-down pan-global pop, all led by an overly-affected, pretentious singer. Of course, with The Police, all of that just felt like reactionary BS to me—creating an unnecessary intellectual justification for what was really a simple dislike.
It may only be their second full-length, but it's not too hard to say the same thing about Vampire Weekend, the indie rock elitist's newest whipping boys. After all, Dirty Projectors are guilty of as much so-called colonial pillaging—they're just a lot weirder about how they do it. That said, if there's one thing that Contra could use, it's some weirdness.
Highly polite, the entire proceeding is kind of like being at the sort of all-inclusive tropical resort Contra sounds like it should be the soundtrack to ("Just sit back and relax"). Which is kind of ironic, as this is far from vapid music. Repeat listens reveal some extremely smart writing and musicianship, not to mention terrific hooks. But then there's that politeness. Like the personality of most pop bands, it all comes down to the singer—in this case, one Ezra Koenig. His delivery is so unfailingly smooth and brainy that it renders everything around it placid, no matter how energetic the efforts of his comrades.
For now, this really doesn't matter. Contra is a very good follow-up to what was a huge debut—an extremely smart and enjoyable album. Time will come when a little more range might be nice, but for now, who needs to worry about the future? Haven't you heard? I'm on vacation.
Reader Comments (1)
I made the unfortunate mistake of joining their mailing list last year after they released their first album in hopes that a second album would provide more range as you mentioned here. I listened to the full album yesterday, and though it was nice to have some more powerful tracks, it seemed heavily borrowed from Paul Simon's Graceland, and in comparison to that, this album seems a tad vapid, much like the first album.
Hype and good promotion are very powerful things. This is one thing Vampire Weekend knows all too well.