Vampire Weekend Encounter A Very 2010 Problem – “Contra” Leaks
Now that “Contra” has been leaked for an enormous two days, the wave of amateurish and badly written reviews will start to pour out of blogs such as this one. The trick with all of this blog business is to carefully choose who to trust; and I can quite confidently offer you the advice that if the “Contra” review you are reading kicks off by attempting to compare it to the band’s debut, you should stop reading. The thing is, how this album compares with “Vampire Weekend” is no less than useless information. The debut was great, sure, but it doesn’t in any way help us to understand how much “Contra” is worth your time. Sure, if you were being very pedantic you could argue that “Vampire Weekend” shows us what the band are capable of, but I still don’t think that whether a band is achieving their potential or not governs whether a record is good or bad. I can’t help feeling that people have become so attached to “Vampire Weekend” that they’re going to find it impossible to enjoy what “Contra” has to offer.
And, well, “Contra” certainly has a lot to offer, whether or not this is going to please their fans, though, remains to be seen. “Contra” is the sound of a strangely matured band, considering their age, not allowing themselves to be restrained by how they are perceived and more than confident enough to race off into little cul-de-sacs of music that nobody else could have had the courage to pull you down. Without a doubt, there are mis-steps, but these curious inaccuracies are no more than the sign of a band expanding their sound; and when they find the way to properly express themselves, as they so often do, even the most enthusiastic of Vampire Weekend fans will have to try pretty hard not to be impressed. They’ll still try to compare it to A-Punk, though…
PS: Seeing as the fantastic album is available yet, songs will only be available for streaming, which I assumed was OK since they are up on the MySpace. Still, XL, e-mail me if you are unhappy.
January 6th, 2010 at 11:45 pm
I can’t get into this LP – you are sure right that we shouldn’t compare it to the debut, but I’m still really disappointed with how it turned out.
January 7th, 2010 at 11:12 am
I think it takes a bit of listening Rade, all I can recommend is to really get stuck in… Albums never seem very impressive when you haven’t got your head around them yet. Make sure you check out the songs above, as well, two highlights in my opinion!
January 7th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
WEB SHERIFF
Who You Gonna Call
Tel 44-(0)208-323 8013
Fax 44-(0)208 323 8080
websheriff@websheriff.com
http://www.websheriff.com
Hi NME,
On behalf of XL Recordings and Vampire Weekend, we would kindly ask you not to post copies of “Contra” on your site (or any non-preview tracks from Vampire Weekend’s new album – street date 11th Jan UK & 12th Jan US).
We do appreciate that you are fans of / are promoting Vampire Weekend, but the label and artist would greatly appreciate your co-operation in removing your links to the pirate files in question.
Thank you for respecting the artist’s and label’s wishes and, if you / your readers want good quality, non-pirated, preview tracks, then full length versions of “Horchata” and “White Sky” are available for fans and bloggers to link to / post / host etc at http://www.vampireweekend.com . Additionally, all three tracks from the Vampire Weekend Meets Toy Selectah bonus CD “Contra Megamelt” (“Cousinz”, “Contramelt A” and “Contramelt B”) have now also been designated as fan previews for sharing ahead of release … .. for further details of the new album, on-line promotions, videos and 2010 shows, check-out the official site, as well as the band’s Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/vampireweekend and XL’s YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/XLRecordings … .. and keep an eye on these official sources for details of further news, preview material and on-line promotions.
As a special, New Year’s gesture to fans and bloggers, an exclusive preview stream of the full album is now also available at the band’s MySpace page … .. this is for hyper-linking ONLY and for streaming by fans directly off the band’s MySpace , so please reciprocate this goodwill gesture by NOT ripping or embedding these files … .. similarly, a streaming widget is now also available off the band’s web-site for fans and bloggers to embed / enjoy pre-release but – again – please only use the official widget and don’t offer or embed ripped / pirated files.
Thanks Again & Best for 2010,
WEB SHERIFF
January 7th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
“Taxi Cab” sounds like an artist going out of their way to make something thats gonna have mass appeal… and 9 times out of 10 that comes out fucking terrible.
But I like it.
January 7th, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Wait hold up now. Turns out I was listening to “giving up the gun”, not “taxi cab”.
I’m listening to taxi cab now, and it sounds more like traditional vampire weekend.
I don’t understand what’s not to like about this? I havent heard the whole thing yet but both these tracks are better than horchata, and certainly a nice (if only mild) progression from their first album.
Must be the “band getting popular – must hate them” syndrome (common among bloggers)
March 20th, 2010 at 10:18 am
I got that feeling too when I first listened to Giving Up The Gun…
You should check out the video!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bccKotFwzoY
It half cracked me up, and half made me think how much I liked all their old music videos better…
January 7th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Well to be fair, I posted what I thought were the two best tracks so it’s not too surprising that you feel that way about them, they’re great tracks! Can’t promise that the rest of the record is of the same quality… But it’s far from bad and definitely not worthy of some of the criticism coming it’s way. As you say, can’t help feeling that some of it’s just down to it not being a debut album. If a band came out with this as a debut they’d receive incredible reviews!
Also, sorry everybody, but XL seem to have completely ignored my PS, ignored the fact that it’s available on MySpace, and ignored the fact that I could have posted the entire album for streaming via their widget, and removed the two songs that I put up for streaming. Defies logic, but I guess it’s their stuff. (although technically you are allowed, by law, to provide songs for sampling when you review music) Sorry that they’re being so pedantic about it.
January 8th, 2010 at 1:36 am
Hi
Once again, you give us a balanced, well written piece of online journalism.
Other blogs should take not of Not Many Experts, as there’s something special in decent writing, simple layouts and expert opinions.
Just wanna say thanks. Keep it up.
BTW, do you have a twitter feed? If so, find us and please add us at: The_Recommender.
Mike
Brighton
January 10th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Cheers Mike, could have said the exact same things about The Recommender, but what can I say… we try our best!
Twitter… funny you should mention that, because I was contemplating caving and getting it the other day, but I’m still sort of happy being in the last decade technology-wise, without a blackberry or twitter. Otherwise, I am sure I would have already added The Recommender! Still, I must admit that I use Twitter to stalk celebrities occasionally. Usually Stephen Fry, what a man!