What kind of band sings about grammar? Stumped? I've got the answer for you -- Vampire Weekend, an offbeat quartet that formed while attending Columbia. The group fuses pop, rock, indie and African beats into their impressive self-titled debut. And yes, they write lyrics such as "Who gives a f*** about an Oxford comma?"
But don't be put off by the grammatical musings. Instead, join together with Vampire Weekend and tableau and stop using Oxford commas! It's amazing how that song (one of my favorites on the album) and many of the other 10 have been playing in my head after only a few listens. Maybe it's the fact that I'm paying closer attention to the details since I'm writing a review. Or maybe it's because Vampire Weekend is just a great band. I'd like to think it's the latter.
The diversity is really what makes the album a success -- each track tells a vastly entertaining and distinctive story accompanied by catchy rhythms. Vampire Weekend starts off with the upbeat "Mansard Roof," a two-minute ditty that gives mention to "a salty message written in the eaves" and Argentines collapsing in defeat. I know what you're thinking -- Vampire Weekend is one of those bands that is being original for the sake of being original, making up weird lyrics and leaving listeners searching for meaning behind the songs' unique façades. But the fact that I don't understand a lot of what these lyrics mean doesn't prevent me from thoroughly enjoying them. The addicting "A-Punk" features a chorus that implores the audience to "Look outside the raincoats coming, say oh!" Track four, "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa," starts off with the bizarre "As a young girl / Louis Vuitton / With your mother / On a sandy lawn." However, "Walcott," with its manic keyboard intro, offers up lyrics that are a little more straightforward: "Walcott, don't you know that it's insane? / Don't you want to get out of Cape Cod, out of Cape Cod tonight?" That's sometimes how I feel about Charlottesville... kidding, of course.
Vampire Weekend is somewhere between Arctic Monkeys and Arcade Fire, in terms of both sound and quality. I did some research (and by research, I mean typing "Vampire Weekend" into Google and clicking on their Wikipedia page) and found out that the album, which dropped Jan. 29, had been building hype since last summer on all the biggest indie music message boards. Though I had never heard of the band before, I think they probably lived up to the Internet publicity. In addition, their name comes from a movie that lead singer Ezra Koenig made the summer following his freshman year at Columbia.
I'll admit that I was a little nervous when I signed up to give my opinions on Vampire Weekend -- up to this point, my whole tableau career consisted of reviewing the latest Oscar contender or comedic flop. But when I pressed the play button on my iPod and the band launched into its first song, I knew I was about to transcend the border from one-dimensional, Roger Ebert wannabe into a well-rounded critic dappling in the fine arts. All I need to do now is find out how to work "harrumph" into everyday conversations. Yeah, Vampire Weekend is that good.
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