Hey, Smartypants

© Esther White

Vampire Weekend does it all over again with Contra.

Everybody’s a critic. Sit in your living room listening to Vampire Weekend’s new (second) album Contra, and these are the unsolicited comments you’ll get from family members passing through: "Is this the new Paul Simon album?" and "Cumbia! Your papi used to love to dance to cumbia music!" and "This must be Paul’s son, Harper Simon’s, new album?!?"

Being loved by women and children of all ages has to be something of a curse for a rock band, and yet these guys are spunky and obviously love what they do.

Vampire Weekend were an unknown band made up of four Columbia University students that blew up online in 2007 and then got smoked by the inevitable backlash when they got too popular and no one could claim them as their own hip discovery.

Their lyrics are arch, erudite and witty and their self-described “Upper West Side Soweto” sound demands toe-tapping from even the most jaded critic. What do they sound like? Well, OK – lots of Graceland-era Paul Simon; there’s no denying it. Vampire Weekend channel African music and, according to this reviewer’s mother, cumbia as well, which makes sense since cumbia music is basically a hybrid of Latin rhythms and the music brought by slaves who were shipped to Andean countries a couple of centuries ago. And my papi loved to dance to cumbia like I secretly like to dance to Vampire Weekend.

Contra is very well conceived and produced; stylistically it’s not a huge departure from their first effort but the fact that they stick to their initial sound and game plan on their sophomore album rather than ambling off in a different sonic direction is admirable. It would no doubt have been easier to follow the pack of hirsute troubadours and 80s synth noodlers. Some critics may complain that they're not venturing anywhere new, but the fact that they've taken on this genre head first and continued with it is perhaps change enough. In an interview last year lead singer and lyricist Ezra Koenig noted that he'd been wearing the same uncool boat shoes for so long that he'd had to duct tape them together. He may be wearing new boat shoes now, but he's still walking the same path.

Contra’s opening song begins: “In December, drinking Horchata; I look psychotic in a balaclava…You’d remember drinking horchata, you’d still enjoy it with your foot on Masada.” See, this band's not just getting their ya-ya’s out – there’s over three quarters of a million dollars worth of Higher Ed college credits informing their lyrics, so you may have to break out your dictionary and reference books to keep up, but it's worth it.

The songs "Holiday" and "California English" start to pick up speed a bit and "Cousins," the first single with accompanying video (check out the clip at their Myspace page) is an absolute stomp by VW standards. "Giving up the Gun" is undergirded by a pulsating bass line and the revolutionary veneer of "I Think Ur a Contra" is a tongue-in-cheek meditation on the politics of relationships: “You wanted good schools, friends with pools – ur not a contra; you wanted rock and roll, complete control, well, I don’t know.”

These boys are not sexy. They’re clean cut, they’re smart, twee and loveable. Don’t be surprised if Wes Anderson uses them for his next movie soundtrack – in fact, if you check out Mark Mothersbaugh’s soundtrack music for Rushmore, you may agree that he could be the 5th Vampire Weekender.

Vampire Weekend are keen observers of their own rarefied world and what they do they do well, so don’t hate them because they’re wicked smart and very good at the musical genre they’ve chosen to inhabit. Pull down the drapes and hit Play.