Vampire Weekend
Contra

XL Recordings

Sophomore releases are a tricky thing for bands who premiered well. You want the band to sound exactly like they did in the first album when they captured your heart but at the same time you don’t want to hear the same old shit. You can look at The Strokes and Green Day for past examples of awkward second albums where we weren’t sure what to expect and we weren’t sure what we got in the end.

Luckily, Vampire Weekend has managed a unique feat. They sound even more like Vampire Weekend that they did in the first album and they also managed to smooth over some of the rough edges of their sound as well. Contra is a wonderful effort that pleases old and new, stays familiar and innovates while being fun to listen to the whole way.

Right off the bat, Horchata welcomes you back into the world of Ezra Koenig’s vocals and that unique Vampire Weekend sound. A combination of modern indie, underlying classical instruments and swooping African pop elements is what made this band unique in 2008 and they somehow made it fresh again.

They play with every song in a different way, like in Taxi Cab where there is a innocent doo-wop love song vibe to the pace. The gem of the CD is when I’m reminded of the Cure meets The Boy Least Likely in Giving Up The Gun with it’s 80s sensibilities and delicate lyrics of past glory. It was genuinely a pleasure to listen to each track to see where their creativity took them.

My first exposure to Vampire Weekend was when they opened for Animal Collective at NYC’s Webster hall. My initial reaction was — they sound unique as hell. After the show was over, I knew I enjoyed their set better than Animal Collective. After listening to this album, I knew I enjoyed it better than the last.

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— Jack Tse