Jan 22 2010 1:31 pm,
Vampire Weekend
‘Contra’
(XL Recordings)
After their commercially and critically adored debut, it’s nigh on impossible to approach Vampire Weekend’s second effort without a certain extra weight of expectation added to the mix. Back in the infancy of 2008, the New York foursome singlehandedly re-introduced Afrobeat into a generation’s consciousness and pretty much defined the forthcoming festival season (as well as upping Peter Gabriel’s credibility rating into previously uncharted territory), but two years is a long time, and when you’re The Sound of 2008 it’s all too easy to find yourself still inadvertently reminiscing years down the line... In comparison to your average Tom, Dick and Courteeners album, you see, ‘Contra’ is brilliant - fizzingwith the exuberance of youth, packed full of diversely nuanced world music influences in ways that are rarely even touched upon in ‘indie’ realms and evocative of the halcyon days of summer in such gloriously technicolour strokes that you can practically feel the sand clogging up your insoles; in comparison to ‘Vampire Weekend’ however it’s, well, pretty much the same. But second generation. And, therefore, not quite as exciting. With a sound as distinctive as Ezra Koenig and co.’s it’s, admittedly, difficult to imagine how they’d tread the line between inventive experimentation and simply losing their style, but ‘Contra’, for the most part, plays its hand far too safely.
‘California English’ is basically an out-take of ‘Mansard Roof’, ‘Cousins’ aims for the off-kilter romp of ‘A Punk’ territory in similarly tearaway style (albeit to pretty ace effect) and even the band themselves state that ‘White Sky’ finishes what ‘M79’ began. Thankfully, not all the album is quite so formulaically based on their previous glories, but there’s barely a track on here that could leave you in any doubt of its author after the first three seconds. There are certain go-to Vampire Weekend characteristics (syncopated time signatures, calypso guitars) that crop up throughout and, though tracks such as the driving, eighties- tinged ‘Giving Up The Gun’ set themselves apart in tone, the prominence of these oh-sorecognisable traits ensures they never quite become the standalone entities they allude to. Underneath all the self-plagiarism, ‘Contra’ is still an incredibly strong album, but it’s not until the final, low-key, string-led swoon of ‘I Think Ur A Contra’ that it becomes an exciting album. It’s in these closing moments that Vampire Weekend hint at something truly special - ‘Contra’, it seems, is primarily just an entertaining stepping stone.
Lisa Wright
