X
Bahrain
  • Dubai
  • Abu Dhabi
  • Doha
  • Restaurants
  • Nightlife & Music
  • Sport & Outdoor
  • Body & Mind
  • Film & TV
  • Art & Culture
  • Community
  • Visa Offer

  • EVENTS
  • COMPETITIONS
  • Kids
  • Home
  • Nightlife

Vampire Weekend album review

Is Vampire Weekend's new album, Contra, any good?

By James Wilkinson
25 January 2010
Vampire Weekend album review

Contra
4/5

It takes balls to be this dainty. Against a doily of precisely arranged guitar tweedles, lead singer Ezra Koenig suddenly bursts into an effeminate yelp on ‘White Sky’, as if he were being covered in tarantulas. The early highlight of a sharpened and comfortable second effort declares that, after being branded whimpering yuppies and Afropop thieves, Vampire Weekend are going to boldly embrace their Vampire Weekendness.

In the two years since the quartet’s heralded debut, other subsequent hyped acts have taken the term ‘buzz band’ too literally: they slather wishy-washy lo-fi with tape hiss and bury languid oohing and aahing under veils of distortion. There is no such ambiguity to Vampire Weekend. Contra tightens up and boils down the band’s concise and meticulously composed white-boy rock. Despite its 21st-century mélange of world rhythms and new-wave pop, this is an old-school record that prioritises the voice. Koenig’s clear chirp, quirks and all, sits atop minimal ingredients.

Keyboards and chamber instruments may now predominate (this is a second album, after all), but each track is still a study in restraint. Piano twinkles over echoing synthetic snare in ‘Taxi Cab’, while ‘Run’ is mostly drums and digital bass burps. Mellower overall, the new songs come coloured with lyrical details like the names of fonts, private schools and diplomats. Bitching about the group’s upper-classness is akin to shaking a fist at Wes Anderson for not directing more slasher flicks.
Brent DiCrescenzo
Available in stores.

SIMILAR ARTICLES

  • Hed Kandi and Khaled Hussain to play Bahrain Grand Prix 2017

  • Caroline SM interview

  • Bryan Adams in Bahrain in 2017

  • The legacy of David Bowie

  • Peaches interview

    Controversy-baiting ex-electroclash star Peaches talks about new album I Feel Cream

  • Alicia Keys album review

    Is Alicia Keys's new album, The Element of Freedom, any good?

Add Your Comment

Sign in

Not Registered? Click here to register

  • Login with Google+
  • Login with Facebook
  • Login with Twitter

Related articles

  • Hed Kandi and Khaled Hussain to play Bahrain Grand Prix 2017

  • Caroline SM interview

  • Bryan Adams in Bahrain in 2017

  • The legacy of David Bowie

  • Requiem: Techno Poetry in Bahrain

Useful Time Out Bahrain Links

  • Cinemas in Bahrain
  • Restaurants in Bahrain
  • Bahrain Spas
  • What’s on in Bahrain
  • Sports in Bahrain
  • Bahrain Bars
  • Art in Bahrain
  • Bahrain Clubs
  • Tickets and Events

Contact Us

  • Advertising

Time Out Products

  • Dubai
  • Abu Dhabi
  • Doha
  • Arabic

Connect with Us

Published by & © 2018 ITP Digital Media Inc. All rights reserved.