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Vampire Weekend: 'Contra' Diction
The Ivy League rockers sink their teeth into an ambitious
sophomore set
By Jonathan Zwickel
Special to MSN Music
At the end of 2009 Vampire Weekend played a series of
radio-station-sponsored concerts along the West Coast, opening amphiteaters for
big-budget monsters of modern rock like Muse, AFI, and 30 Seconds to Mars. The upstart New York quartet
stood in starched, sophisticated contrast to everything the major-label
headliners were not, playing their sunny, ethnically-inflected pop with a
confidence that was either scrappy or misguided. Previously unexposed tweenage
listeners couldn't help but give in and bounce along.
What this says about music's current condition: There is hope for us all.
An exaggeration, maybe, but Vampire Weekend's breakout success is encouraging
for anyone into brainy, forward-thinking, mold-breaking music. Their second
album, "Contra," released this week on UK-based indie XL Records, expands upon
their eponymous debut, which came out almost exactly two years ago. Mixing
upbeat African soukous rhythms and Senegalese-style guitar with lyrics that read
like a Facebook update of John Cheever's studies of New England gentility,
"Vampire Weekend" was singular and divisive. A perfectly self-aware meta-pop
masterpiece for some; too precious and too beholden to Paul Simon's Afrophilic "Graceland" period for
others. "Contra"—Spanish for "against"—might be a direct response to those who
backlashed Vampire Weekend for their Ivy League educations and surprising
popularity.
Photos: Vampire Weekend In Focus
"I think there's an idea there about not being so reductive in your thought
and being critical," says bassist Chris Baio, applying "Contra's" connotation
equally to himself and the band's naysayers. "Someone who writes something
negative about our band, I can simply label them a hater, but do I really know
them as a person or know where they're coming from or if they had a bad day?"
In other words, listen smarter. But not too smart: Nerd-tastical debate about
privilege and appropriation shouldn't overshadow Vampire Weekend's music.
According to Baio, he and the rest of the band—lead singer/guitarist Ezra
Koenig, keyboardist/producer Rostam Batmanglij, and drummer Chris "CT"
Thompson—have mass-appeal in mind.
"Ultimately we're trying to write pop songs, and there should be some
visceral appeal, and you don't really need to pick it apart," Baio says. "I
think you can enjoy it on a pure level. We don't view ourselves as the kind of
thing that's too good for anyone or something that can go over someone's head."
And so "Contra" is immediately brilliant and unabashed fun. Melodies are
exquisitely catchy, bright and cleanly produced though not without shading and
texture. The album's lead single, "Cousins," bounces on a giddy ska beat,
clocking in at a manic two minutes, 18 seconds. "Run" features an
elegantly-structured keyboard buildup that unleashes a glorious torrent of
filtered horns at its chorus.
"At the same time," Baio continues, "we do put a lot of thought and nuance
into it so that if you're looking for more then there's something there for you
to dissect and analyze."
And so "Contra" is a complex internationalist post-pop kaleidoscope,
furthering the band's predilection for cultural scavenging with jots of dub and
dancehall, Eastern European techno, and electrified Mexican cumbia. Lyrics
reveal a mindset less obsessed with youthful immediacy than nostalgia for the
past and wistfulness for the future. "California English" thumps underwatery
with Koenig's vocals on Autotune, the singer chasing an idea, meme-like,
"Blasted from a disconnected light switch/Through the condo that they'll never
finish/Bounced across a Saudi satellite dish/And through your brain to
California English." "Diplomat's Son" features a sample of art-rapper M.I.A. over a dancehall beat that's simultaneously
deep and airy, its titular character coming and going through the singer's life
like a wind "racing off the river." "I Think UR A Contra," the dreamy,
faraway-sounding album closer, begins with the words, "I had a feeling once/That
you and I/Could tell each other everything/For two months."
"When I listen to music, I can enjoy something that takes direct influence
from something that I have absolutely no knowledge of and may never be aware
of," Baio says. (Story Continues On Next Page...) |
