Vampire Weekend -‘Contra’ (XL Recordings)

Vampire Weekend’s 2008 self-titled debut was one of the main releases of that year. Loved by bloggers, critics and public alike, what started as a release that bloggers were writing about was crossing over by the end of the year. Not only in terms of daytime radio play, but the fact that their forthcoming UK tour was sold out by Christmas. That’s good going for pretty much any band, even more so in times of a recession.

So how does the traditionally ‘difficult second album’ fare? It’s fair to say that their sophomore release is not as immediate as their debut. Certainly, for the first three or four listens I was undecided on it. But several days later, I’m hugely, hugely enjoying this album. It’s not widely different from the first album, but there’s still the African influences that made their debut special, the catchy songs and a willingness to be intelligent rather than feeling that they have to hide any books they might have read recently.

At thirty six minutes in length, it’s not a long album – but it comfortably makes the best use of the time and the eleven songs here are strong enough that it doesn’t feel that there’s much filler. Granted, if you didn’t like the first album this is unlikely to change your view on the band. Opening track ‘Horchata’ is very silly indeed. But as far as this listener is concerned, highlights like ‘Run’ and ‘Diplomat’s Son’ and the delightfully frenetic ‘Cousins’ show that Vampire weekend have come up trumps again.

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Stream the album here