Description
Anybody who thought the seemingly bottomless well of musical breakouts from New York would have dried up by winter 2008 got a shock from the rapturous reception given this impressive debut. Foregoing hipster Brooklyn for the more collegiate Upper West Side campus of Columbia, the quartet’s music follows suit. This is hardly the loft-party lysergia of their counterparts across the East River; rather, it’s a catchy cocktail of ethno-rhythms, psych-lite instrumentation, twee sensibilities, and an Animal Collective-style, anything-goes spirit. Instead of feigning street cred, the band wear their upbringing on their sleeves (literally), with songs about Cape Cod and the polo shirts and deck shoes to match. While Paul Simon’s man-child melodies appear all over VAMPIRE WEEKEND, cuts such as the stand-out single “A-Punk” recall another quartet of infamous Africa-plundering, New York preppies: the Talking Heads. With guitarist Ezra Koenig’s intricately inventive lines, Chris Tomson’s ever-shifting grooves, and Rostam Batmanglij’s faux-melodica keyboard melodies, Vampire Weekend have the musical muscle to merit the fever-pitched hype.
This NY four-piece draw on their diverse backgrounds and interests, experimenting with African guitar music, the Western classical canon, hazy memories of Cape Cod summers, winters in upper Manhattan, and reggaeton. “Equal parts shruggy New York indie strumming and groovy Afro-pop, Vampire Weekend’s organ-and-drum runs highlight narratives about relationships, punctuation, and sometimes both” – Spin. Named “Hot New Kids” in Rolling Stone’s “Hot” issue. Vinyl contains MP3 coupon.
Tracklist
| A1 | Mansard Roof | 2:07 |
| A2 | Oxford Comma | 3:15 |
| A3 | A-Punk | 2:17 |
| A4 | Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa | 3:33 |
| A5 | M79 | 4:14 |
| B1 | Campus | 2:55 |
| B2 | Bryn | 2:12 |
| B3 | One (Blake’s Got A New Face) | 3:11 |
| B4 | I Stand Corrected | 2:38 |
| B5 | Walcott | 3:39 |
| B6 | The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance | 4:03 |
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