Vampire Weekend ? made up of four recent graduates of Columbia University ? has been heating up blogs for months as the band?s EP and demo tracks circulated on the Internet. With the release of the band?s self-titled debut ? full of infectious, summery indie-pop that sticks in your head and demands re-listening ? all expectations have been fulfilled. They may not be the deepest band in the world, but that didn?t stop the Beach Boys from making an impact either.
What makes Vampire Weekend stand out from the glut of indie also-rans is their unlikely combination of collegiate aesthetics, East Coast regionalism and African pop. When they started breaking, many critics compared them to Paul Simon’s Graceland, but luckily no one knows what that actually means. The actual influence is spelled out explicitly in the title of the track ?Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,? which is a reference to a popular dance in soukous, or African rumba. Echoing soukous, Vampire Weekend?s rhythm guitar has a clean, appealing treble tone, while drummer Christopher Tomson?s percussion often turns on a world-beat hitch that makes dancing irresistible.
Vampire Weekend also seems to take a cue from their Caribbean cousins, exuding a carefree, winsome attitude. On ?Campus,? the band hits a chorus of jangling guitars and bouncing drums full of latter-day Belle & Sebastian-glee while singer Ezra Koenig narrates a college-campus near-romance: ?In the afternoon/ You?re out on the stone and grass/ And I?m sleeping on the balcony/ After class.?
The album turns a bit introspective as the album reaches its final tracks but still manages to keep the party going. “I Stand Corrected” features a brooding bass and drums that mimic the skittering break-beat of IDM electronica, while Koenig engages in some self-doubting that would be unbearable in less able hands: ?You?ve been checking on my facts/ And I admit I have been lax.? In the same vein, while the last song on the disc may be called ?The Kids Don?t Stand A Chance,? but with Rostam Batmanglij?s baroque harpsichord and violin interlude sandwiched between a rock-steady keyboard and outro tremolos, the whole effect can hardly be considered a downer.
In fact, one of Vampire Weekend’s most beguiling characteristics is the apparent effortlessness of their music, full of lyrics precise enough to keep the listener?s attention and vague enough to allow free association. These intriguing lyrics are on full display in the last verse of ?The Kids Don?t Stand A Chance,? in which the band conjures up indignation and defiance in a handful of broken images: ?The pin-striped men of morning/ The partners in the dance/ The paper?s shot to pieces/ The kids don?t stand a chance.? In fact, it’s hard to imagine any other band throwing around so many offhand references ? Peter Gabriel, Lil? Jon, Darjeeling tea and someone named Jackson Crowter ? while keeping it all from becoming cloyingly quirky.
If Vampire Weekend takes a stance on anything, the band seems to center on genuineness and living without pretense. Though the album is full of literate wordplay, Koenig slyly turns it against himself in ?Oxford Comma,? where he confides, ?Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?/?If there?s any other way to spell the word/ It?s fine with me, with me.? On ?M79? the band preaches a similar mantra: “No excuse to be so callous/ Dress yourself in bleeding madres/ Charm your way across the Khyber Pass.”
It?s hard to find problems with Vampire Weekend that don?t come off as merely niggling. The album runs a svelte 34 minutes, which may come across as underwhelming for those who have already heard much of the material. The grating chorus of “One (Blake’s Got A New Face)” almost tarnishes a perfect pop gem. And the packaging for the album has a tossed-off, DIY artlessness that belies the quality of the songs bundled inside. Otherwise, the album is flawless. If writing songs is as easy as it sounds for these four, there can only be great success to come.
5 stars out of 5
