_____So I think it’s pretty fair to say that this is the first widely anticipated album of 2010. It’s also pretty certain that following the success of their self-titled debut album since it’s release in early 2008, Vampire Weekend, while fully deserving of the credit and acclaim received for what was a stunning first album, kind of put an uncomfortable amount of pressure on themselves to write an equally stunning follow-up. They had to somehow retain their individual and unique sound from the first, but at the same time not produce a samey-sounding second. They couldn’t afford to lose their upbeat chirpiness, but had to keep it sounding fresh. After listening to Contra, I shouldn’t change my opinion of Vampire Weekend, more add to it, expand it, deepen it. It would have been too easy to produce Vampire Weekend II, and even easier to go all Arctic Monkeys on it and release a far too complex, far too different, and, on the whole, far too suckish epilogue to what was a fantastic success story.
___So, when I can first heard free download Horchata in October, I was kind of disappointed. Not that it doesn’t sound lovely, it does, and I wouldn’t hesitate to introduce it to my parents, but it was purely, completely, 100% what was expected of them. They just reminded me so much of that guy who’s just so fucking nice it sort of annoys you? Like, I sort of hoped they’d come out with some outrageous track with a Kiss Of Life style African drum chorus, Gravity’s Rainbow-y dominating bass, and, I dunno, some sexist lyrics to match or something? Instead, I got this vibrant, quirky track that, to my unrelenting anger, makes me smile every time I hear it…
_____Horchata is actually down to be their next single at the moment, an odd decision in my view as there are much better songs on this record, namely the heart-wrenchingly cute White Sky, or possibly the most different sounding track on the record (apart from Taxi Cab, but that‘s terrible), Run, or most definitely the best sounding track on the record, Giving Up The Gun. After those three? Erm, yeahhhhh…not really.
___Don’t get me wrong, I do like the majority of songs on the album, I Think Ur A Contra is a beautiful song with which to close the record, and I’ll be the first to admit that Cousins was a fantastic first single transition from the A-Punk sound to the extremely similar yet just about different enough sound that Contra offers. And there I was thinking Diplomat’s Son perfectly integrated the hip MIA noise, making an average song far greater than just that, only to find it actually samples said hip MIA…But my point is that none of these seem to me to be single material, they just lack identity or something? They sound exactly like what they are, Vampire Weekend album filler. Awesome album filler, but album filler all the same. The rest of which, I’m afraid, is not so awesome.
___They’re not disgraceful, but Holiday just doesn’t work for me, and I’ve already remarked on my dissatisfaction with Taxi Cab, and then California English, well I’d like to know why California English Pt. 2, a bonus track, didn’t make it onto the original release, because Pt. 1 leaves quite a bit to be desired. Unlike Giving Up The Gun, which, like I said, rocks.
_____Like I said before, Vampire Weekend are the ridiculously nice guy you hate to like but can’t hate. And that’s not going to change with Contra, an album which I do like, but am secretly trying to find holes in, and perhaps that’s why, looking back on what I’ve written, I’ve probably been a bit harsh. And I’m going to give it a slightly harsh mark, considering it was far from a bad listen, but that is solely due to two authentic reasons. The first is that I feel Contra was a tad on the safe side. They just could have let loose a bit more, made it sound less like the old Vampire Weekend’s second album a bit more like a new, more experienced, more confident Vampire Weekend’s first, but maybe I’m forgetting the pressures places on new bands like this to stick to what sells, especially following relatively recent news of Klaxons having their second album being rejected by Universal, and Friendly Fires being told to cut down on the whole samba influence that kept creeping up in their first album. And the second is that the huge success of their debut album meant that this album was never going to be quite as good, and I am confident it won’t be, nor will it sell as well. My three favourite Vampire Weekend tracks still all come from their first release, and I’d be surprised if it’s a different story for anyone else.
B3
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