Vampire Weekend

My friend Pete always derides me for listening to “uppity” music, and he would hate Vampire Weekend. They’re just too precious, too precocious and smack of privilege. Even on paper, they’re detestable: four Ivy Leaguers playing music often described as Strokes meets Graceland (or, in their own words, “Upper West Side Soweto”). That said, their full-length, self-titled CD — which compiles a handful of previously leaked tracks with a few extras — is one of the most fun records I’ve heard and certainly one of the best debuts.
     Nary a dud among the track listing, Vampire Weekend is at its best when it doesn’t try quite so hard. “Oxford Comma,” with its shuffle beat and brainier-than-you refrain (“who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?”) and “Campus,” a song about pining for a girl on, um, campus, with a Room-on-Fire riff, have the most indie-rock cred. And the sweet “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” is Vampire Weekend at its groovy, brilliant best.
     If I was 20 and in university, this would be my favourite record ever. As it is, it’s clearly going to be one of the best of the year and a difficult sophomore challenge. A
Vampire Weekend: Campus (mp3)
Vampire Weekend: I Stand Corrected (mp3)