Contra

Pop, worldbeat, synth-pop, indie. Ni fu ni fa.

The soarer sings with clear singing are most appealing and that makes up at least half the album. Good word smithery and enjoyable synths accompanying the Vampire Weekend guitars and slightly Afro polyrhythms. A high three.

Clever and well-executed, but I always find this band a little too precious too me (particularly with its deep inflection of that New-Yorkiest of white hipsterism).

It’s Vampire Weekend!

Whiny, nasty, and downright awful from start to finish. I'm going with two stars because there was some semblance of music here, but it was close to being a one star album. I guess this is what you might get if someone heard some Paul Simon when they were off their face drunk in a bar, decided to rip it off, but had been too drunk when they were listening, so messed it all up and ended up adding several layers of new dross on top of something that was bad in the first place. The last song is sung so badly it made me want to slap the singer.

The story about the woman on the cover is more interesting than the album itself.

Not a huge fan of this record. Feels very indebted to Paul Simon’s 80’s work, which I’ve never been a fan of. Not to say that there isn’t talent here, that they don’t have their own identity, or they aren’t bringing anything new to the table, but stylistically it doesn’t do much for me.

I don't understand the appeal of Vampire Weekend, and I doubt that I ever will. Don't take that as a condemnation of their music, I just don't get it.

Feels like I'm listening to a 40 minute long Volkswagen commercial. Leasing available at $299/month with just $3000 down. Not sure I can explain it even to myself - there's melody here and some unpredictability - but it's overly cloying and I hate it. The vocals? The lack of dynamics / overly compressed 21st century sound? Me having a bad day? All of the above but that's probably the heavy order of things. Doesn't even sounds like a cohesive unit - more like an annoying bedroom project. Who knows. I tried - I really did and I really really don't like it. And I wrote that before I got to the hideous autotuning in "California English" Only elevating it to a 2 in a moment of being generous but now I'm glad I know to avoid Vampire Weekend entirely. 3/10 2 stars. IMO: Belonged in the book? No.

Damn, in hindsight these guys were a huge omen for Imagine Dragons-type music coming down the pipeline

Contra gets annoying pretty quickly, goes for whimsical and quirky and can't pull it off as there's no depth or personality to it all, it's a shallow collection of sounds and stylings that really don't make for a good album. I don't dislike it enough to give it a 1/5 but it's a low 2, I don't understand how music like this is popular.

Nice vibe, but again not my thing

Sounds like every other Vampire Weekend album I've heard, but this one doesn't have any of the hits. Not feeling it.

Summery, light, forgettable.

I was VERY surprised to find this album as annoying as it is. Alt rock is my jam, understated vibey, a little eclectic... check! But the vocal delivery here plus a nothing that struck me as that melodic or catchy... feeling a bit more pretentious & smugly clever. Even though this is barely over 30 minutes, i was happy for it to be over.

Idiosyncratic, eclectic indie pop. I thought I'd like this more than I did. Mildly disappointed. Rating: 2 Playlist track: Cousins Date listened: 16/10/24

It's a bit too hipster-y for me

I never really listened to these guys outside of whatever singles I was subjected to, which I couldn't discern from other commercial indie rock because it all just blends into a twee wash being vomited into my ears, so this just came off as a bitter pill in anticipation. The first two tracks had some interesting instrumentation, despite an obnoxious and unlikable vocalist who sounded like a digitally treated Paul Simon with all the charisma sucked out of him. The third track seemed to emphasize the vocalist's lack of charisma, and while the arrangement of the fourth track stepped it back up, the vocalist was now shoved to the forefront of my listening experience. There is a tepid ugliness to this, like some aggressively beige throw pillows drawing attention from an otherwise pleasant feng shui. It's like walking into a bathroom that seems pristine and noticing a fleck of shit crusted onto a toilet seat and then all of a sudden every single imperfection pops out to you, except instead of an errant pube or toothpaste spittle spatter, it's plasticky drum reverb and overly produced guitars. Just listen to Graceland and avoid all the aesthetic and production mistakes of the 2010s.

I've heard of these guys and I expected it to rock more than this. This is goofy and pretentious. 2.5/5.

3 2

I just like was really not vibing with this. I’ve heard of them before but never listened to a full album and let me say it was more than disappointing. The vocals and the music didn’t match and even if they were separate I wouldn’t have enjoyed either.

From its name I thought it would be something a little rougher, it is called rock but it is something softer and closer to pop with influences like reggae or Caribbean. The truth is that it didn't excite me much, it didn't turn me on and it seemed to me like just another album among the indie proposals... come on, not even their most successful track achieved it! 1 1/2 stars