Vampire Weekend Diplomat's Son

So, Vampires are so in this year, right? Twilight phenomenon, TrueBlood, Daybreakers, and the list goes on I'm sure. One thing that many in the blogosphere, musicsphere, and any kind of sphere you can think of, myself included, were looking forward to was the sophomore release from everyone's favorite band to love in 2008, Vampire Weekend. While not vampires themselves, per se, they are certainly four Ivy League dudes who stormed on the indie scene two short years ago, fucking and punching their way into every college dorm room from Luxemburg to Little Rock. Deemed fresh, youthful, and exciting at the time, their self titled debut had us all smitten at the slightly more upbeat, modern rendition of something resembling Paul Simon's Graceland.

Two years have passed and we're once again treated to an album by the boys from Columbia. Contra is an album that many, many people will enjoy, thoroughly. Praise is being heaped on by reviewers and there is already talk of album of the year (thirteen days old at the time of me writing this). In this reviewer's humble opinion however, this album represents the worst of snobbish hipster pop. Heavily electronic, including an auto-tuned Ezra, the album features rub-it-in-your face simple riffs and harmony, seemingly designed to lull the listener into some state of diminished mental capacity and general "˜cool-dudeness.'

I find this release to be an utterly unsatisfying slap in the taint to those of us waiting for real musical progression on behalf of Vampire Weekend. Rather than give us something that built upon the neoteric, albeit somewhat recycled, base of their 2008 album, we're treated to a dumbed-down, melodramatic, crap can of synthetic beats and falsetto, pretentious, pseudo-intellectual lyrics (drinking horchata? Screw off.).

Again, I apologize to those of you pleased by Contra, but I was seriously disappointed by this album. I've given it a few listens and the only thing I can say is that it may lend itself to some very interesting mixing. Overall however, Contra gets two thumbs way down from yours truly.