Vampire Weekend

First I must say that iTunes Genius is quite appropriately named. After my recent Fiery Furnaces Purchase, the music mastermind gave me a few recommendations, all of which I ended up liking... a lot. One of my favorites from this list was The Buzzcocks, a 70's English punk-rock band that reminds me a bit of The Romones or The Sex Pistols. I ended up getting their 1980 album, Singles Going Steady which is pretty awesome. The best lead Genius gave me though was pointing me towards another indie band, Vampire Weekend.

Vampire Weekend is fairly new to the scene, their eponymous debut album came out in January of last year. They definitely have a Euro and alternative sound, which is probably why they are much more popular in Britain than in the US- at least for now. Like the Fiery Furnaces, they have concocted a sound comprised of many styles; but their sound is decidedly more natural. It's refreshing and upbeat. Their album's fluidity reminds me of The Killers Day and Age and they also have a cutting edge sound like the strokes. Even with VW being easy to dive in and listen to, it never gets boring. As I listened to their album, I found myself going from "this is catchy" to "I have listened to this straight through three times a day for a week".

The four guys that make up Vampire Weekend are recent Columbia University grads. Some critics have joked about their silver spoons roots and button-down shirts, but most can't help but admit that these guys just sound good. Sure they may have been given the title of "Whitest Band" by the site Stuff White People Like, but their music certainly doesn't sound pretentious. In fact, they seem to joke about their preppy image in songs like "Oxford Comma": "Who gives a fuck about an Oxford Comma, I've seen those English dramas too, their cruel..". Fortunately, I think the critics actually got it right this time. I agree with Post Magazine's remark that "this cosmopolitan quartet has streamlined ska, post-punk, chamber music and Afropop into a glorious ultramodern groove" (make note of the lack of an Oxford comma in that comment).

Unfortunately, there was one misstep in Vampire Weekend. Like many a band before them, a single song poisoned their album. The song "Blake's Got a New Face"... it is pretty much unlistenable if that is a word. This song was such a let down... I went from jamming to making stupid jokes about some one named Blake who had a face transplant.

But if you can ignore "Blake's Got a New Face", listen to Vampire Weekend. I'm hoping they are in the works of creating a second album. Vampire Weekend doesn't seem like a hyper-active band; they seem smart so I'm hoping that when they do come out with some new music they don't disapoint.

My rating on Vampire Weekend's Vampire Weekend: 4 stars (A-)

It would have been an A had it not been for "Blake's Got a New Face"