Album Review: Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend's self-titled debut is one of the most immediately loveable debuts to come along since The Strokes' 2001 Is This It. Similar to this modern classic, Vampire Weekend's debut features a terse selection of fairly simplistic yet incredibly hooky tunes that make repeated listenings almost a no-brainer.

The sound that the band culminates from various sources is where the brilliance of the record lies, with VW's singer/songwriter Ezra Koenig uniquely meshing elements of Afro-pop, punk, and new wave into one, solid package. It's easy to visualize the band's melodies and compositions strutting across the musical staff in a cool, confident, and trendy way. The boys from Columbia are no strangers to knowing what makes oodles of vest-wearing, book carrying college kids drool over music. The content of tracks like "Oxford Comma" and "Campus" easily jive with this audience, while the tightly arranged "M79" sounds like it jumped straight from the soundtrack of a Wes Anderson movie.

While the band can be criticized by some for too-heavily channeling the spirit of Paul Simon's Graceland, one must realize all of the other cards that are at play here. The band truly sounds like nothing that's been put out before, and nothing that's out now. It's a gratifying listen from start to finish, and then from start to finish again, and again... and again.

Key Tracks:
A-Punk
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
The Kids Don't Stand A Chance

Final Verdict: 9.0