Full disclosure: I hated Vampire Weekend's self-titled 2008 debut album. Well, actually, 'hate' is probably too strong a word to use; more accurate would be to say that I didn't understand what the band did to deserve so much blogosphere hype. To me, the endless stream of music blog posts about Vampire Weekend could very well have been written by printing the terms "New Wave," "Reggae," "Afro-pop," "Talking Heads," "Paul Simon's Graceland," and a random assortment of overly effusive adjectives on small pieces of paper, throwing them into a bag, shaking it up, and simply re-writing them in the order they came out. Verily, Vampire Weekend seemed like a band tailor-made for hipsters. Their resulting hype machine echo chamber effect felt eerily similar to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's brief 2005 period of instant, debut album internet domination, but something was different. Where I'd fallen madly in love with CYHSY's brand of Talking Heads-influenced, hipster-approved music three years earlier, the best I could muster for Vampire Weekend's schtick was bemused indifference.
But where Clap Your Hands Say Yeah went on from their vibrant, DIY yet modish debut to release a disappointingly bland follow-up album, Vampire Weekend did the same, but in reverse order. By adding certain electronic elements--namely, pre-programmed loop sampling and, shit, even autotuned vocals!--to the instantly familiar blend of hipster-approved, globalized influences they honed on their first album, Vampire Weekend emerges with a second album much more engaging and interesting a listen than the first. It's only 17 days into the new year, but I am certain this album is gonna be on everyone's best-of 2010 lists come December. Unlike Vampire Weekend's 2008 album, however, this one will also be on mine.
Check out track #2, "White Sky", here on youtube.
No comments:
Post a Comment