It is such a refreshing change to find a gem like this. Light and sparing in their musical sound and arrangements, Vampire Weekend are four unpretentious college boys from Columbia University. Their paired down sound, mixes world music energy and joi de vivre with a spare rock asceticism. Names like Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, The Yachts and Paul Simon pop up to rub shoulders with the sprightly spring of music from Soweto. They bare all these very lightly, the emphasis is on fun, with much the same feeling of unbridled life enhancing hedonism as the early Beach Boys.
Lyrically Ezra Koenig's words are witty and literate, a trifle opaque in meaning, but you sort of get the sense of it somehow. They appear to be part of a trend these days to simpler and unadorned pop music. What you hear on CD, is what you'd get if you saw them live. No flashy over production job here to smooth over the cracks. The simple delight of 'A-Punk' can't fail to lift even the most world weary and cynical of hearts. There's not a single bleak moment of nihilistic introspection or angst ridden gloom across all the eleven tracks on this CD. What a relief !! In some peoples books that might make them a little suspect. Their style of presentation might be clean, fresh faced and preppy, but the music is intelligent, playful and definitely has somewhere purposeful to go.
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