Hype can be both a help and a hindrance. While obviously hype can be helpful by getting an artist’s name into the public’s ear, it becomes a hindrance once backlash arises from those who feel that the excessive hype is undeserved. Columbia University’s Vampire Weekend find themselves right in the middle of this kind of situation, and one has to wonder if the hype, that’s been gaining a freight train’s worth of momentum, is truly justified.
Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut album is technically sound. Frontman Ezra Koening’s smooth melodic vocals accompany the rhythm heavy, afro-beat sounds of the album. The influences that Weekend taps on this album are almost too numerous to list, and all of them are plainly visible within the music. At times the band taps new wave pioneer Elvis Costello, and borrows plenty from the eccentric Talking Heads; but realistically the album is nothing more than a few pages ripped from the song book of Paul Simon, the man who ushered the afro-pop sound into the American main stream back in the ‘70s. For those familiar with Simon’s Graceland, the influences will be more like similarities and the feel of originality that gives any good album the daring feel of something new and radical, disappear. Though the lack of true originality and the all too often feel of stagnant repetition slows the album down and gives critics reason to write it off as just another victim of undeserved hype, there really is quite a bit of substance here.
The songs here are breezy and danceable, each containing their own individual identity. And although Koening’s lyrics are mostly whimsical nonsense, the abundant use of proper nouns throughout most songs gives them a sort of personal touch, as if the band is inviting you to be apart of their world. References to pop culture are also hidden meticulously throughout the album. Such as when Koening "climbed to Dharamsala" to meet the Dalai Lama in "Oxford Comma," or when he utters the never truer phrase "Lil’ John, He always tells the truth."
The majority of the songs on the disc are predominantly glossy and well produced. The core instruments used on Vampire Weekend are piano, guitar, bass and drum, but most songs are spiced up with hand drums, violin and even the occasional harpsichord. This gives the band plenty of options and allows the songs to not be too similar to each other, a huge plus in my book. Highlights include the sweeping "M79" and the blistering two minute album opener, "Mansard Roof."
Vampire Weekend is without a doubt a solid listening experience whether it happens to be a somewhat recycled sound or not. It’s by no means a life changing album or an album of the year candidate, and it’s probably not even worth the massive amount exposure it’s received; but none the less Vampire Weekend is a fun and enjoyable LP that would fit in nicely in anyone’s music collection. And for those who can’t tell the difference between Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, it should be an even more pleasurable experience for you.
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