Austinist Album Review: Vampire Weekend

As an album, Vampire Weekend’s self-titled LP is an inventive record notably different from those of their peers – namely thanks to their afrobeat bent – but which also falls in line with most of what you might expect from the indie rock records foisted on us in the past six months or so, with all their positives and negatives intact. While it’s not your everyday album, all that talk about this band’s African-based ingenuity – at a fever pitch, at this point, and partially propelled by the band themselves – is overblown. Good songs buoyed by a very real but also truncated interest in the music of Africa is one way to sum up the music on Vampire Weekend. The four dudes in Vampire Weekend may be fans of afrobeat, but their songs recall the deft indie stylings of Islands and The Shins and, like Beirut, an attention to old forms given a facelift for an audience who like older music but really love scattered-pop mercenaries like Neutral Milk Hotel, or the long winded Decembrists, or '70s stalwarts The Talking Heads, for instance.

The songs soar with quick-stepping snare drums and wandering synths, and “A-Punk” delightfully spins post-punk into the equation. “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” holds traditional African music closer to the vest, with auxiliary percussion and skipping guitar leading the way. At other points, Vampire Weekend seem less “Upper West Side Soweto,” as they like to describe themselves, and more just jumpy rockers with a good ear for melody. Either way, it’s different, but not too different, and that seems to be enough for some. Depending on what you’re looking for, Vampire Weekend might very well have your number. But if you’re expecting this Next Big Thing band to usher in something other than a good but not great debut, then you’re going to be disappointed. And what is hype if not a prelude to disappointment?