Vampire Weekend

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Binding: Audio CD EAN: 0634904031824 Format: Explicit Lyrics Label: Xl Manufacturer: Xl Number Of Discs: 1 Publisher: Xl Release Date: 2008-01-28 Studio: Xl
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Editorial Reviews: Who would have thought it? Nobody, that's who. The last time African music enjoyed any meaningful dalliance with the Western mainstream it was under Paul Simon's patronage with his peerless 1986 album Graceland. That's if you don't count Damon Albarn's extra curricular indulgences (which you don't). The last place we expected it to turn up again was from four New York kids who otherwise might have been found fiddling with their fringes in dorm rooms waiting for the Albert Hammond Jr. tour to hit town. Even by the obscure standards US indie has set itself over the last few years (see TV on the Radio and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) Vampire Weekend offer up a witch's brew of audacity. That alone would be sufficient to garner infamy and a rep for experimentation, but they also hang from this rebellion of form a stream of alt-tunefulness so efficient and unabashed it would make The Strokes' first album blush. Thus, the piping reggae organ and sun-kissed swagger of "Oxford Comma" is given a heartbeat by tight lo-fi garage drums and "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" lilts along with cheerful tribal rhythms and crisp African guitar, bound by ascending psychedelic vocals. And that's not to mention the mad strings that make listening to "M79" like watching Ski Sunday on hallucinogens. Their advanced rhythmical awareness even makes more standard indie rampages "I Stand Corrected" and "Walcott" less standard. Which is about the length of it; Vampire Weekend, making the standard much less standard. --James Berry
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Good honest pop with an African twist. Comment: Unlike some other reviewers I never listen to Radio 1 and I am immune to any hype that's going around. This is a refreshing and different sound and I would recommend it to anyone. Like other old farts I was a fan of Paul Simon's African phase, and love the sound. I get the impression these guys are doing this for the joy of the music, not to get more sales, and to me that makes all the difference. Customer Rating: Summary: Vampire Weekend Comment: After hearing A-Punk what sane music lover couldn't want this album? But with few tracks being as fun or catchy I was slightly disappointed. The album failed to make me bop continuously for the 34.2 minutes like i was expecting instead bringing out a slightly less catchy side. It's still listenable... Just not as listenable as I wanted it to be. I'd give it a 7/10 in all. Customer Rating: Summary: This is fantastic ! Comment: This is a great album, a really chipper album. I recommend this if you like good music and are cool like me. Customer Rating: Summary: Probably the best album I've bought in years Comment: 5* reviews are probably overdone and that might be the only reason I haven't awarded one here. I found the band through amazon after shopping for the ting ting's (they're quirky and fun, too check them out) only knowing the song 'oxford comma' which I managed to preview on the net. I got the album and listened to the whole thing and not to put too fine a point on it - its pretty much all fantastic. The style is a kind of upbeat indie sound but quite neat (a polite way of saying not all indie bands know their way around their instruments), infused with a variety of exotic influences, the african ones have been mentioned. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, despite the lead singer's quirky vocals sounds like a Paul Simon song and I don't know if they're copying his style or just his influences, the others mix the folk tunes more seamlessly in to a modern streamlined form, A-Punk will be familiar to many who think they've never heard of the band but Oxford Comma is an incredibly catchy tune. I don't think there IS such a thing as 'too quirky' as one other reviewer claims and besides this is hardly strangeness for its own sake (for that check out philip glass) this is just incredibly original new music. Just when you thought there were no great new bands one like this appears. I hope this is the first album of many. Customer Rating: Summary: Genius! Comment: This album is absolutley brilliant! I love the lyrics! They are deep and perceptive and fun. The sound is infectious and life loving! Buy this album it will brighten up your day whenever you listen to it! And if you want to listen closer it will provoke you to imagine more fully the parts of stories it tells!! More Reviews