Leave Vampire Weekend Alone!

I tried for about an hour (OK maybe 15 minutes) to write something really profound about how tired I am of reading negative commentary on Vampire Weekend surround the release their new album Contra. But I couldn’t come up with anything better than what Carles of Hipster Runoff (I know, I know) has already said: "The most impressive thing about Vampire Weekend is how deliberate/aware they seem to be. Even though they may or may not have a douchey brand, and listening to them might be 'exhausting' because you have to read tons of 'backlash' articles, they still seem to be performing beyond 1st release expectations. Excited to see what happens 2 them in the next decade, because it will be pretty awesome/hilarious/sad/funny/etc."

Vampire Weekend is a band that figured out how to write good pop songs, give them a unique sound, and get a lot of people to listen. To me, Contra is the natural evolution of their sound. The sophomore album is more produced than the debut and it has less songs that will be receiving stars on my iTunes playlist (though I do love that track "White Sky"), but I think Vampire Weekend achieves what they set out to achieve and don’t deserve the hostile response. I think you’re all just jealous!

Listen to Contra in its entirety on Vampire Weekend’s MySpace page before it “officially” (what does that even mean anymore?) drops on Tuesday and read an awesome profile of the band by Lizzie Widdicombe in last week’s (sorry I’m late) New Yorker to learn just how deliberate they really are.