VW album

I thought maybe Evelyn Is Not Real would post on this, but since he isn't, I'll throw it up here (especially since there's been a dearth of posts lately). EINR posted about Vampire Weekend months ago, but they finally came out with their self-titled debut LP a few weeks ago. There was so much internet buzz about the band, you'd think it would be hard for them to live up to it, but it's actually a pretty fun album. The closest thing I could compare it to is if you took the catchy hooks of The Shins and threw in some of Paul Simon's Graceland (in other words, African rhythms). The result isn't mind-blowing, but it's very, very easy to listen to.

The only odd thing I found was that there are two songs about Cape Cod, which sounds kind of strange if you listen to the album from beginning to end. It's kind of like the faculty candidate who gave a seminar here at Harvard a few weeks ago and used the word "precociously" three times during her talk. Using that word once in a scientific talk is strange enough (especially since the word was being applied to yeast behavior), but using it three times is just distracting. Likewise, all this Cape Cod talk on an album that barely clears the half hour mark is just weird, especially since the band apparently hails from NY. Find something new to write about, guys.

But that's a quibble. I'd certainly call this my favorite new release from January, and I recommend it to anyone who's up for some addictive ear candy. Also, my almost-one-year-old likes to boogie down to this album, so apparently it has cross-generational appeal.