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Friday 6th April 2012
All Day BBQ Festival

Sparrow and the Workshop
6 Day Riot
The Nuns
Singing Adams
Y Niwl
Colours
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The Windmill
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On Our iPod

Golden Grrrls - New Pop 7”

Chris Devotion & The Expectations - Amalgamation & Capital (album)

Trailer Trash Tracys - Ester (album)

Throwing Up - Mother Knows Best 7”

Howling Wolf - Complete Chess Masters 1951-60

The Ketamines - A Rotten Bond/1 Yr (from Oddbox Singles Club Pt 2)

Cardinal - Hymns (album)

Proper Ornaments - Taking the Gamble Out of Buying 12”

Darren Hayman - January Songs (album)

Various: Marshall Teller EP 12”

Latest Forum Posts

Album Review

Vampire Weekend
Contra XL Recordings

Article written by Darren H - Jan 13, 2010

Contra

Few would deny the meteoric impact of Vampire Weekend's self-titled debut offering, with its seismic pop appeal and unshakable catchiness (A Punk, Oxford Comma, Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa). However, fewer would have predicted a follow-up effort brimming with even more promise than its predecessor.

'Contra' is exactly that. Blending their now-customary pop eccentricities with compressed beats and futuristic, Afro-electronic synths, VW have struck the perfect combination of familiar and unexpected.

'White Sky' jumps out like an Afro-Caribbean Mario Brothers soundtrack fastened by a sweeping Kate Bush-inspired chorus. In the hands of most bands, this would spell disaster. VW, on the other hand, make it sound completely natural.

Singles 'Cousins' and 'Horchata' slot perfectly into the bracket of classic VW without leaving you feeling like you've been had. Both tracks possess enough immediacy and edge to prove they belong on 'Contra', rather than a couple of left-overs from 'Vampire Weekend'.

'Run' and 'Giving Up The Gun' echo Arcade Fire's capacity for boundless, ethereal anthems minus any unnecessary darkness, and are probably the album's finest moments. Ezra Koenig and Co's capacity to 'change it up' is also the only possible criticism of 'Contra', in that the album doesn't progress in a linear fashion towards offering a clearer insight of how VW 3.0 might sound.

But maybe that's the point. 'Contra' is a lava lamp of interchangeability, brilliantly blending old and new VW, offering a real sense of a band in the midst of a creative purple patch. It is full of unexpected quirks and nooks, and discovering them is what makes 'Contra' such a potently intriguing listen.

Links:
http://www.vampireweekend.com/