If this is any indication of what 2008 has in store, it could be a good year for new music. For those of you who have been oblivious to the Internet buzz surrounding this New York outfit, let me to introduce you to Vampire Weekend. Their self-titled debut was released today, and having had the privilege of previewing it on Yahoo Music Jukebox a few days ago, I have been listening to it non-stop for the past three days.
The music combines pop, light rock, light punk/new-wave elements, and more noticeably reggae and African guitar (their Myspace page gives props to Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Louis Mhlanga) in a refreshing and exciting way that surprisingly, is not too much to handle. There are not a lot of fancy studio tricks, the lyrics are fairly light straightforward (not shrouded in mystery and darkness), giving appropriate props to Lil' John, proper punctuation and Cape Cod, and the delivery seems genuine and effortless.
I remember all the hype surrounding the Strokes debut, Is This It, and how disappointed I was when I heard the "new saviors of Rock N' Roll" for the first time. (There is a point on "I Stand Corrected" where the drums come in and sound eerily close to the Strokes, actually) So far, these guys have lived up to all the acclaim I have heard, and I foresee a bright future for them. I am not making any outrageous claims regarding these guys as the future of anything, but for the record, this is the most excited I have been about any debut album in a long time. Here's to an exciting and interesting year of music in 2008.
2 comments:
You have to admit that Vampire Weekend is a corny name for a band!
I did have my doubts (it sounded a little to emo at first), but once I heard the quality of the music and saw the omnipresent chandelier featured on the album cover I knew it made sense...you would think with a name like Vampire Weekend they would have a dark sound...quite the contrary, it's a refreshing and light sound...I think the Vampire Weekend was when they were all drinking cocktails in Cape Cod, writing songs, having friends stop by to check it out, biting necks, etc.
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