Vampire Weekend have so many surprises under their sleeve. In early 2008, they stunned the world with a delectable and perfect debut record filled with Paul Simon loving Afro pop, with the delightful string section here and there. Last year, we sampled a few songs from their much anticipated sophomore release, and everything looked right on par. The new songs were sharp and innovative, and the whole world let in a big breath of relief. Well,
Contra is here, so prepare to be wowed by Vampire Weekend once more.
So many bands fail to live up to the expectations following a successful debut album, mostly because of time restraints. They have all of the time in the world before releasing a debut, but only about a year to come up with a second one, and that usually overlaps with the oft exhausting debut tour. But, listening to Ezra’s smooth vocals and the band’s seamless backing instrumentals, it’s hard to believe that they were under any stress at all. Take “Holiday”, for example. It builds their signature clever lyrics over fuzzy percussion and douses them with the fun loving guitars we got addicted to in “A-Punk”.
The best thing about
Contra is that it is audibly a post Discovery record. The delicate percussion and almost defiantly lullaby-esque tones on the album flirt with disaster, but come up safely at the other end. You can hear Rostam’s innovative songwriting contributions which derive from his collaboration with a mostly string based band (Ra Ra Riot). On
Contra, it’s more subtle and palatable than on
LP by Discovery.
Contra is a whisper, a dream, a meadow of bubbles. Its ten songs are soft and warm and full and will satisfy you on every level imaginable. It is the perfect aural manifestation on the lyrics found on "Diplomat's Son": "I could sleep whereever I lay my head...last night I smoked a joint with my best friend, when I woke up, he was gone". It is a slightly confused, but thoroughly enjoyably mellow record.
It has the occasional jolt of energy (“Cousins”), but mostly stands as an ode to the middle ground between shoe gaze and indie pop. And once again (just like with their debut), if you hate this album, you're just lying to yourself.
It’s an extremely well made record, and has earned a huge stamp of approval from me. Especially "Giving Up the Gun". hot damn that song is good.
4/5
Contra officially drops tomorrow in the UK and Tuesday in the States, so make sure you pick it up!
