They say/you say/I say: Vampire Weekend's "Contra"
They say:
Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times
The rhythms seem stale, predictable and at times ennervating (slowing to a crawl on "Diplomat's Son," a misguided dalliance with dub reggae); the hooks are much skimpier and less memorable, and bandleader and primary songwriter Ezra Koenig has even less insight to offer while bragging of his groovy globetrotting: His idea of insight into our polyglot culture is to brag of drinking horchata, a milky Mexican concoction made from rice, while wearing a balaclava, a Ukrainian ski mask.
The Independent:
Quite literally, a world of fun.
Stereogum:
Once you start really taking the tracks apart, they start opening up in the hook department and it becomes clear they've gone deeper with the production, and emotion.
Entertainment Weekly:
Contra inevitably lacks the slaphappy dazzle of breakout singles like ''A Punk'' and ''Oxford Comma.'' ... If the lyrics sometimes seem to showboat their 10-carat educations (look, Ma, three continents!), the music remains happily inclusive: somewhere between limbo contest on the lido deck and cocktail hour in Cape Cod.
Rolling Stone:
If Vampire Weekend was Rushmore, Contra is their Royal Tenenbaums: brainy, confident and generally awesome.
You say:
@musictweetmusic The album SMOKES...
@aerogare It's like Franz Ferdinand's second album: rather good in its own right but not as good as the début.
@straightgangsta I haven't even listened to it yet and I know it's good haha.
@andyfortson I think it's meh. The singles are good. The rest sounds like b-sides to the last album.
@JeffD44 I wasn't a fan of their debut, but diggin the new VW Contra, it's less chirpy, and feels a lot more textured and adventurous
I say:
I loved Vampire Weekend's last album before it was all that cool and long after it was declared totally over. I spent a lot of that year traveling back and forth to New York and then up and down the East Coast, and the songs had a great "we've all gone to look for America" modern Simon & Garfunkel vibe, very my-life-is-a-Zach-Braff-movie-soundtrack.
Then this year I discovered fun., who share a certain indie-pop sensibility of quirky, plunky melodies and verbosity. But fun.'s "Aim and Ignite"—definitely in my top 10 for 2009—lacks the pretentious English major issues that keep Vampire Weekend from truly being, well, fun. Last week I was driving along the California coast on a brilliantly warm and sunny winter day, listening to "Aim and Ignite" (I know, my life is so hard), and I realized, I think fun. has made Vampire Weekend kind of irrelevant to my life. Then I heard "Contra" and couldn't come up with any good way to refute that. It's not a bad album, but I found it pretty boring. I've heard it before. And if I'm going to listen to something I already have, I'm going back to fun.
Here's the video for fun.'s "All the Pretty Girls," one of 10 absurdly enjoyable tracks off their debut album:
Earlier unfounded opinions:
+ Two holiday treats
+ We were there: fun. in LA
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