Weekly Release Spotlight: Vampire Weekend

Posted on 1/28/2008

Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend

[XL]

It's quite childish, really - wanting to not get into something so bad almost solely because it's riding a wave of popularity throughout the Internet before their first proper release even hits the shelves. Yet you try to convince yourself: it's not like these four recent well-off Columbia graduates wearing khakis need anymore people fawning over them. Nevertheless, you have to put the CD in to fully understand why you're not going to enjoy it like everyone else, especially because it's 8am and you're on your way to work. And of course, just like a sick joke, as the rainbow melodies of "Oxford Comma" wiggle into your ears, you begin to involuntarily smirk. But that's not all: suddenly the sun shining through the windshield and into your face as you turn a corner turns all anthropomorphic on you, laughing joyously and saying to you, "it's okay, the next song 'A-Punk' is even more delightful."

That bright, yellow, and benevolent center of our universe is right, too. Like a perfect pop album should, Vampire Weekend's self-titled debut brings it up a notch with each successive track, creating a unifying and unique overall sound throughout without ever distinctly repeating the same idea twice. They achieve this musical anomaly using two controversial methods that so many brooding for-the-sake-of-art musicians pride themselves on avoiding: thievery and fun-having. "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" directly references both Congolese dance music (the title) and Peter Gabriel (the lyrics) while also fittingly sounding like a combination of African pop rhythms and Gabriel's effeminate vocal gymnastics. Except, you know, they use indie-pop's clean electric guitars, a keyboard, and a standard drum kit. They are 20-somethings from Brooklyn, after all.

But here's where the intersection of influence and energy plays a crucial role in making Vampire Weekend a cut above your average blog-hyped band. Any artist could probably sound eerily like Paul Simon (like they do on "One (Blake's Got a New Face)") at his most eccentric if they tried and practiced hard enough. However, the key words that popped into my head upon my first listen of Vampire Weekend were "effortless" and "precision," not "mimicry" or "slackness." They did not lazily put these songs together, lopping their listening habits in with their jam sessions. They took what they loved, let it flow naturally and very calculatedly through them to their fingertips and vocal chords, and the result is four guys getting genuinely excited about music, which is always refreshing, no matter how hard you try to deny it.

Written by Chris Polley, Radio K DJ and volunteer.

Stream: Sorry, no track is available for free legal download. Listen to their songs at their official website.