What I’ve noticed in the reaction to Contra is that critics have been overwhelmingly positive, and fans (at least the fans that I talk to) have been overwhelmingly negative. But critics are human. They built this band up to almost godlike status. They over-hyped and oversold the band’s debut, and put a burden on these boys that they couldn’t bear. So, approaching Contra, they had started to believe in the miracles they’d peddled. They really bought into the idea that this band could do no wrong. Now, I didn’t think the band’s debut was a total miracle (I did think it was great, but not life-changing), so I’d like to think I am a little more realistic about their follow-up. But it’s not just me. I think more than a few of us suspected that Vampire Weekend didn’t really have a fruitful career in front of them. The sound of their debut wasn’t going to afford them mileage, and they knew it. That’s why, inside of a year, you had band members already going in other directions (case in point: Discovery, also known as Rostam Batmanglij’s attempt to show he wasn’t a one trick pony from a production standpoint)
Much has been made of Vampire Weekend as social commentary. Many critics lambast the people that incorrectly aver Vampire Weekend is just a bunch of rich, Ivy League types. In fact, those critics say, it’s that precise mentality that Vampire Weekend rejects in their music. They are proponents of a much purer social mentality. How progressive. The real truth is that this debate is a fabrication of the critical community designed to inject meaning where there is none (this is more true on Contra than it was on the band’s debut). Ezra Koenig’s lyrics are complete nonsense. Are we really, seriously going to engage in analytical exercises with an album whose first lyric is “In December, drinking horchata, I looked psychotic in a balaclava”? Some may say I’m oversimplifying it and missing the whole point, but a point couched in studied idiosyncrasy and sophomoric, sometimes straight goofy, pretension is a point I’m happy to miss. Of course, you can be the judge; to each their own.
Musically, this album is frantically produced and paced. Every song feels a little rushed, and because the band is uncomfortable letting the songs stand on their own, they feel compelled to inject some weird shit, like the shrieking falsetto chorus vocals on the otherwise inoffensive “White Sky”. It’s this kind of thing that makes Vampire Weekend sound like they’re trying way too hard to convince us the infectiousness of their first album wasn’t a fluke. Rostam Batmanglij’s arrangement decisions lack the spare but still bustling charm of the band’s debut; it was this charm that made the songs sound as good as they could (I mean, they resort to AutoTune on “California English”, for God’s sake). Instead, on Contra, the mixes are cluttered and crowded, the instrumentation forced and unnatural. As a result, the performances are confused and, in the case of some songs – like the desperate “Cousins” – sound frantic and hyperactive. If their debut was carefree and joyful, this record is practiced and self-aware. These are not good changes for a band that seems so completely defined by their attitude.
Now, some might say it’s too early to let fall the guillotine at this point. After all, Contra is just their second album, and the sophomore slump is a pretty common phenomenon. And maybe it’s also true that Vampire Weekend had a bigger target on their backs than most bands did. But once you strip away all the critical subterfuges and the preconceived ideas, you’re just left with what you hear when you press play. And what you hear is a disappointing, haphazard, practiced album that is poorly written, and the production of which borders on caricature. You may have gone through love-hate cycles with Vampire Weekend’s first record. Here, I think the best you can hope for is indifference-hate cycles.
5.2 / 10.0
