Thursday, February 21st, 2008...9:45 pm
Vampire Weekend
This is an edited repost of a “review” I did of Vampire Weekend’s debut self-titled album. Needless (or rather I do need to say) I’m in the minority when it comes to this album, seeing as I don’t love it and hail it as the second coming. So, enjoy!
As you can tell by the title, this entry is on a band called Vampire Weekend. I’m not easily impressed and if a band or singer is hyped to the extreme, especially in the blogosphere, chances are I’ll be even less impressed if you’re not extraordinarily talented. As an example; Kate Nash has been hyped by various media outlets since she first posted a song on MySpace. Everyone loves her and having, until about a week, only heard snippets of her songs, I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. Then I got the chance to listen to her entire album, and I got it. The point though is, if you don’t have a song that can immediately grab me, even in a semi-conscious state, there’s no hope for you in my opinion.
So, Vampire Weekend. Since almost a year ago people have been going ga-ga over this group from Columbia University (don’t get me started on the whole Ivy League bullsh*t) and since I mainly listen to LPs and not (illegal) internet downloads of demos, I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. In fact I kind of ignored everyone’s drooling because there have been a lot of one hit wonders who got fabulous reviews on the outset. Anyway, Vampire Weekend’s debut album was released yesterday and, in a semi-conscious state, I gave the album a spin. My immediate thought was that Paul Simon should sue the lead singer for copyright infringement because the two sound so much a like. My next thought was that Paul Simon should sue the whole band for copyright infringement because the band seemed to have based their entire album on his 1973 album There Goes Rhymin’Simon (which I had to listen to extensively when I was a child). This isn’t to say they aren’t good. They’re a good solid band. All I’m saying is that the mass amounts of praise that this band has garnered over the past year isn’t entirely deserved. Over at Good Weather for Air Strikes, writer Derek has already basically declared it the album of 2008. The only review of the album that seems at all realistic (at least in my little world of online criticism) is the AV Club who gave the album a B-. Everyone else seems to think that this album is the best thing since sliced bread, which, in my opinion, just isn’t true. A good debut does not mean genius and all of these brilliant reviews are just setting the band up for failure when they get around to their sophomore album. (See Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs and most bands nominated for the Mercury Prize)
To sum up: Vampire Weekend is a fairly good album that owes a hell of a lot to Paul Simon and people need to calm down about this band.
Original post by imnore
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