Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

 Less than stellar
As much as I love this band's originality, with scores of harpsichords, organs and violins, the debut release of Vampire Weekend is somewhat disappointing.

The album starts unspectacularly, with some weird disco/techno groove. As much as I love the orchestration, I spent most of the time wishing that there was a louder bass line.

In fact, there is almost no bass in the opening songs until the third track, "A-Punk." Even then, I'm still wishing that there was some sort of cool guitar solo to make up for the bass line. Even The White Stripes knew to add some wacky keyboard solos or guitar feedback to jazz up their bare-bones recordings.

"Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" might have sounded good in the 70s or 80s, in the time of the Talking Heads. However, it still sounds a little too primitive for my tastes. And it doesn't help that there is a nearly non-existant bass line.

And these opening songs make the album disappointing, unfortunately. They show some brilliant orchestration in the songs "M79" and "I Stand Corrected." And I really liked the cute harpsichord touches in "One (Blake's Got a New Face)", with cool vocals that might have come from an album by The Police, shot by machine-gun speed guitar strums afterwards.

As much as I love Vampire Weekend, I wasn't too impressed with this release. Amazon may have said that this is an improvement on the Talking Heads album, "Remain in Light", but I highly doubt it. May 3, 2008

 A Stand-Out
Indie has recently become huge, and there are many new indie bands who either make a bang, or just failed to start with. And many big bands are indie-for-the-sake-of-being-indie bands. It's weird music, and nothing more. Vampire Weekend made me blink a few times before I could actually appreciate them. They did something different, but didn't make you turn grey. It's intelligent indie-pop, that's suitably for a Sunday afternoon, Friday Night party, or anything. It can fit in every aspect of your life, and that's a good thing.

Some tracks have violin sections reminiscent of Arcade Fire, and some drumming might take you back to Paul Simon's "Graceland". Other than that, nothing else is relatable. They truly have an original sound. A few of my favorites were Oxford Comma, Cape Cod Kwassa, Walcott, and Campus.

I think that everyone should try out Vampire Weekend, because I believe that it has something for everyone, except maybe metalheads... I'm truly looking forward for their next album. Keep it up mates! May 2, 2008

 Love the CD
I first heard these guys on Sirius Radio (leftcenter) and I loved the sound. I am really enjoying the CD. Love the upbeat melodies and the different instrumentals. I also discovered a song named Bryn (my daughter is Brynne). Whatever, I thought that was cool! Great summer music. IMHO April 29, 2008

 Late to the party, but glad I came
I wish I would have heard of Vampire Weekend when they were first starting to make some underground waves. Despite that, they have a fun sound that will appeal to a lot of people (perhaps selling out from what they started off as, but can't tell for sure) from indie, alternative, and pop. It'll be interesting to see what happens next for them. April 27, 2008

 This year's freshman-dorm album
I've had a strange, irregular series of reactions to this band.

I heard that Vampire Weekend was the Hot New Thing, but didn't get around to investigating the music for awhile.

Then I heard they would appear on "Saturday Night Live" in another week or two, so I looked up their MySpace profile. I don't remember if I streamed more than one track, but "Oxford Comma" instantly knocked me out. Loved it. Still love it. The nifty inverted chords, à la Brian Wilson...the delightful hook of those goofy, sixth-interval jumps ("I've seen those English dramas to-OOH/They're cru-OOL").... I probably listened to that song a dozen times within a day or two.

But then I saw the group perform on SNL and...kerplunk. They were one of the "greenest" acts I've ever seen on the show. Came off like they'd been playing together for six months, tops. Just seemed like college dorks playing a local house party for beer, laughs and maybe a cute girl's phone number. They couldn't have been more "white boy," which is odd since their songs have such strong ska/calypso/African elements. And I didn't like how they even emphasized their nerdiness in such a contrived way, with the preppy sweaters, the repressed body language and all that. And...the little creeps didn't even play "Oxford Comma"! They were lucky to have a professional string section onstage with them, because I really don't think they could have handled this large-scale venue on their own.

Still, I bought the album anyway. I put off grinding all the way through it for a couple of months, but I listened in bits and pieces.

I finally gave it a full, intense listen about a week ago. And it's simply not a keeper. The lyrics can be clever and the music is an interesting mix of styles, but that's not enough. "Oxford Comma" is still magical, but I don't enjoy any other song nearly as much. The sequencing is also a problem -- the first three tracks are the strongest, so the rest of the disc feels like a downhill slide.

Hearing this album, I'm immediately thrown back to my college days -- yes, I'm dating myself here -- when everybody around me "partied" with Zenyatta Mondatta and I Just Can't Stop It (two albums which I never bought myself). It's particularly hard not to think of the English Beat while hearing "A-Punk." Except the Beat and Police had some genuine rhythmic muscle and groove, whereas Vampire Weekend just daintily flits about. For beer, laughs and maybe a cute girl's phone number.

I'll be very surprised if this band sustains its buzz with future releases. They're probably nice guys, but they're a hype all the same.

This year's freshman-dorm album. A year or two ago, maybe it was the Shins, Death Cab for Cutie or Rilo Kiley. Now it's Vampire Weekend. Next year...who knows. April 24, 2008

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