Vampire Weekend - 'Contra' (XL Recordings) Released 11/01/10

If it’s not broken then why fix it? Vampire Weekend certainly think so, and who can honestly blame them. Despite several lukewarm reviews upon release, their self-titled debut remains one of the decade’s most impressively crafted records, something its popularity in almost every end of the zeroes “Best Of…” list evidently proves. Fast-forward two years, and little it seems has changed in the world of Ezra Koenig and his three associates. Still omnipresent are the African influences that punctuated the first record’s college rock template, while the subservient upbeat nature of its predecessor is repeated throughout ‘Contra’ and its ten tracks. This despite the title’s loose reference to a right-wing organisation whose conflict with the Sandinistas in Nicaragua during the tail end of the 1970s would perhaps suggest a more agitated collection of protest songs rather than the radio-friendly guitar pop Vampire Weekend despatch so succinctly.

Indeed the title is a thinly veiled homage to one of Koenig’s heroes, Joe Strummer, several of the songs here directly influenced by both his life and the music of The Clash. Although some would probably declare this sacrilege, the similarities between both bands, at least in terms of make-up and influences are blindingly obvious for all to see. The deliberate fusion of lyrics depicting Western idealism coupled with African rhythms is something The Clash regularly experimented with throughout their career, and although a staple ingredient of Vampire Weekend’s sound, there are still moments where the results are breathtaking.

The multi-faceted tempo changes of the record’s penultimate moment ‘Diplomat’s Son’ for example take Vampire Weekend into earthier, progressive territories. Clocking in at a gargantuan six minutes, its calypso heavy hookline, built around a sample of M.I.A.’s ‘Hussel’ stands out as their most disciplined foray into colloquial elegance. ‘Giving Up The Gun’ meanwhile is their most straightforward pop song to date and a far more obvious choice of lead single than ‘Cousins’. Koenig’s lyrical assertion that he’s taking us “Right back where we started from” hints at its origins as one of the earliest compositions in their repertoire and possibly the only pre-Vampire Weekend song to have made it into recorded form. Add a bit of tweaking here and fine tuning there and its warm, radiant glow shines like a ray of light amidst ‘Contra’’s incessant glow.

Elsewhere, ‘Contra’ is pretty much business as usual. ‘White Sky’ and ‘California English’ could both have slotted onto their debut with consummate ease, while the closing ‘I Think UR A Contra’ could easily have been renamed ‘The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance Pt. II’, such are its similarities to its predecessor’s bookend. Overall, Vampire Weekend have developed a formula that has paid handsome dividends thus far, and although there will no doubt be the odd snipes about lack of further progression or variety, no one can surely blame them for sticking to what they do best, particularly when they’re capable of conjuring up tunes as deliriously hook-ridden as the majority of ‘Contra’. Whether album number three beckons a sea change into unchartered waters remains to be seen, but for now Vampire Weekend’s status as fine purveyors of guitar-orientated pop is firmly cemented.