so, Vampire Weekend. What to say that hasn't been said 36 789 times in the past few weeks on music blogs around the world? Actually, it's pretty simple: this is fantastic music. Beyond the "new Strokes" labels being banded about, at the heart of their debut album is a desire to give it their all, to meld their influences (afro-beat and indie rock with a varnish of Ivy League preppiness) in a way that is neither overbearing nor self-indulgent, and to basically make music that is fun to listen to, yet rewarding after continuous listens. A lot of what's on this record has been heard in various forms before (Paul Simon's Graceland, Talk Talk), but the freshness and sheer exhbuberance of the songs makes worrying about the orginality of this work a moot point. What's most satisfying is that the songs on here bounce around, yet never have that sticky-candy attribute that many pop songs seem to acquire so fast. In a year where winter has never really happened, it seems fitting that January would see the release of a great summer album. There are songs to drive to Hyannisport to, to reminisce about your college days and to wish for the weekend to last forever. And if the summer never really comes around (see: last year), what better way to tide us over to the next one than this pretty little gem of a album?
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