Vampire Weekend exploded onto the indie rock scene two years ago with an appealingly organic, world music tinged sound with an Ivy League sensibility. Nobody had managed to capture that sound before besides perhaps Paul Simon. The band has attempted an about face on their highly-awaited sophomore album Contra. But the experimentation doesn't pay off.
"Horchata" has atmospheric vocals from singer/guitarist Ezra Koenig. Besides the marimba, everything else, like engine piston drumming and synth strings and choir, seems affected by overblown studio wizardry. This approach sets the tone for the whole album, reminiscent of solo Sting or Paul Simon as produced by Brian Eno.
"Holiday" and "Cousins" are perhaps the only two songs on the album that have prominent guitar throughout. The former has a ping-pong rhythm and the latter pummels along at a breakneck speed, which sounds like more studio magic.
Taking a cue from King Sunny Ade, "California English" has some interesting juju guitar leads undercut by jagged rhythm tracks. Koenig affects a stupid "ethnic" accent for portions.
The final song on the album, "I Think Ur A Contra" is an incredibly dreamy affair. A wave-like mix of keyboards and guitar harmonics washes over the listener.
Vampire Weekend's keyboardist, Rostam Batmanlij, produced Contra and it definitely shows. Too much in fact. It sounds as if the rest of the band had barely any contribution at all, just letting Batmanlij fart around. The problem with synth-heavy music in general is that it can end up sounding a combination of thin, cold, soulless and robotic. This, coupled with the lack of variety in instrumentation, hurts Contra. Vampire Weekend is a full band and it's a shame they don't sound like one here.
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