Vampire Weekend - Contra
In recent weeks, one of the most hyped things across the interwebs [apart from possibly this] as well as more traditional media, has been Vampire Weekend’s new album, Contra. Now, I have been a fan of Vampire Weekend since their first album, the self-titled Vampire Weekend. They are good makers of indie/poppy music, even if iTunes chooses to somewhat confusingly class their genre as “World”, with a somewhat eccentric choice of lyrics.
The fact that this last point has been mentioned in nearly every review or press release does, however, does bug me. Because, really, it is not just preppy, “upper-Soweto” New Yorkers who can thing outside the lyrical box.
Take the current number one, for instance - Iyaz - Replay:
“That girl, like somethin off a poster
That girl, is a dime they say
That girl, is a gun to my holster
She’s runnin through my mind all day, ay
Shawty’s like a melody in my head
That I can’t keep out
Got me singin’ like
Na na na na everyday
It’s like my iPod stuck on replay, replay-ay-ay-ay (2x)”
Not, you say? Huh. Ok, let’s try last week’s number one - Bad Romance by Lady Gaga:
“Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance
Rah rah ah-ah-ah!
Ro mah ro-mah-mah
Gaga Ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance”
Em… I’m not sure I’m helping my cause much here. Christmas number one?
“Killing in the name of!
Killing in the name of!
And now you do what they taught ya
And now you do what they taught ya
And now you do what they taught ya
And now you do what they taught ya
And now you do what they taught ya, now you’re under control
And now you do what they taught ya, now you’re under control
And now you do what they taught ya, now you’re under control
And now you do what they taught ya, now you’re under control
And now you do what they taught ya, now you’re under control
And now you do what they taught ya, now you’re under control
And now you do what they taught ya, now you’re under control
And now you do what they taught ya!!!”
*Grasping at straws* The Climb?
“I can almost see it
That dream I’m dreaming but
There’s a voice inside my head sayin,
You’ll never reach it,
Every step I’m taking,
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shaking but I
Got to keep trying
Got to keep my head held high”
At least the sugary music has a properly clichéd accompaniment, I suppose… And it isn’t too repetitious? OK, I give up. I refuse to defend “The Climb” over Vampire Weekend. You win, guys. Though even then, I wouldn’t say the lyrics are necessarily “clever” - more just unusual enough to bring a fresh perspective to what you can and can’t sing about. Take “Holiday”, for example:
“A vegetarian since the invasion
She’d never seen the word BOMBS
She’d never seen the word BOMBS blown up
To 96 point Futura
She’d never seen an AK
In a yellowy Day Glo display
A t-shirt so lovely it turned all the history books grey”
Anyway, the whole thing is available for free streaming at their website if you fancy, and I for one shall be keeping an eye out for when the whole thing drops low enough in price for me to justify buying it :)
And one last set of lyrics for the road, this time from ‘Sally’ by Johnny Flynn, just to prove that Vampire Weekend are not in a minority of 1, even if it is nearly as small:
“I’m a plough and you’re a furrow
I’m a fox and you’re a burrow
I’m a weed and you are the road
You were a man (You were a man)
And I’m alone”
