Amazon.co.uk Review: You're the only band in the world to have moulded the fruity shimmering of sun-baked African pop with the leather-jacketed cool of 21st century New York rock 'n' roll, delivered it with the diligence of first-class honours students with tidy haircuts, and become a universally-lauded if unlikely international sensation as a result. You're not about to change your spots now, are you. It should come as no surprise therefore that with Contra, Vampire Weekend have delivered another full length album packed full with the same near-flawless, feather-weight indie with occasional knock-out tendencies as their eponymous first. What may be surprising though is how different a route they travelled to get to that same point this time around. Guitars are banished, or at least faded back in the mix to play textural bit parts and little more. Minimal electronic undercurrents earn a leading role, plugging a live cable into their principal artery and receiving little in the way of resistance from the main body. So the near-yodelling square dance of "White Sky", tip-toe harpsichord dub calypso of "Taxi Cab", Wacky Races jerky surf of "Cousins" and the Strokes-esque 4/4 infectiousness of "Giving Up The Gun" are all given a modern and thoroughly refreshing jab in the rear. And yet they all still sound, to some extent, like they could have been recorded for Paul Simon's seminal Gracelands. A compositional triumph that may side-step the immediacy of their debut, but turns out all the richer for it. --James Berry
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - feel good music
this album is a really great feel good album, the music isnt the most thought about but really lifts your spirits, i have listened to this over and over again, great!
Rating: - Great album, one that really grows on you :)
I've loved this band since I first heard Blake's Got A New Face on the iTunes song of the week however when I first heard this I thought that it wasn't anywhere near as good as the first album, but it alowly grew and grew on me and now I like it even more than I like the first!
Rating: - Fantastic and different
Absolutely love this second album, keeping their unique style but experimenting with different sounds and rhythms it's a great album. Possibly not as initially catchy as the first but easily as good if not better than the first once you get into it.
Rating: - A welcome relief from vuvuzelas
Vampire Weekend's 'Contra' is what you'd get if you threw Jimmy Buffet,MGMT, Paul Simon and Jason Mraz into a recording studio, gave them a bontempi keyboard, a Major Morgan and a couple of bongos and cowbells and asked them to write an album inspired by The Cure and traditional African Music.
I like all of those things seperatly, and after two listens, I like the sum of their parts too.
This is fresh, original, bizarre but very cheery stuff and it's hard not to like it. ... Read More
Rating: - Superb
This is a superb album, vaguely reminiscent of Paul Simon's Graceland. Tremendous rhythms, creative melodies and allround good stuff. Well worth a go!
- Great album, one that really grows on you :)