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By: Dennis Cook
Some albums grow on you gradually but others charm instantly. The latter often lose their luster before too long but sometimes a record is so fully formed and possessed of some x-factor that it's both sweet and sustainable. Such was the case with Belle and Sebastian's 1996 debut, Tigermilk, and it might prove true of Vampire Weekend's self-titled debut. My Caddyshack heart wants to reject their boating shoes and Oxford commas but they're so flucking winning I can't bring myself to pull their crewneck sweater over their head.
Much has been made of their supposed African musical leanings but they're about as Motherland deep as No Doubt are Jamaican. It's a nice spice to what is essentially pop derived from early Talking Heads, The Fall, Violent Femmes and the aforementioned Belle and Sebastian. Clever, snarky and musically lithe, Vampire Weekend take the conceits of being rich and over educated and make them virtues. They critique the privileged world they emerged from with soft insight and a winning shuffle, complicating things with fab string arrangements and tubthumping percussion. Like another buzz band of recent years, The Arctic Monkeys, they're actually quite good despite the hype that might suggest otherwise.
JamBase | The Hamptons
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