It’s tough coming back from a critically acclaimed first album which took the music industry by storm and then hope that your sophomore effort can live up to the hype.  Vampire Weekend needed to accomplish this after their breakthrough debut album was number one on almost every critics review and made top 25 at least in every album of the decade list.  They try to attempt the impossible with their second album entitled Contra which will certainly get favortism and strict criticism depending on the reviewer.  The band has a very distinct African Pop/Classical Indie rock sound that is great for any occasion, especially partying in the summer time in the backyard or on the beach.  But to be brutally honest I can see many fans of the band, who aren’t really true Vampire Weekend fans not liking this album.  Not to say the band has changed drastically but they have added some more experimental elements to their sound by using 8-Bit keyboard effects and obscure instrumentation that gives it more of that African Pop sound.   And to be fair to the band they still do sound like Vampire Weekend and they haven’t strayed too far but on some songs people will be saying “What the hell?” at the first listen.  I can already tell what songs I love from the start and I know will warm up to me after a few listen.

The opening track “Horchata” is the perfect song for transition from the debut into Contra and couldn’t be more a perfect balance as a summer and winter combo song to set the mood.  “White Sky” seems like a song I will have to warm up to and “Holiday” is already my song by them I can’t wait to play at a summer party since it has that warm party feel to it.  Unfortunately Vampire Weekend did it to me again and I can’t say I completely love every song because “California English” is my “One (Blake’s Got a New Face)” and I think it would be a good song if they didn’t do the splicing up of his voice to make it sound like he was speaking a different language.  The next few songs are decent tracks until you get to the song “Cousins” which I enjoy but it’s one of their weird songs that will probably take a few listens to get used to until I absolutely love it.  The last three tracks of the album are completely solid and I love the way each song flows into the next with “Giving Up The Gun”, “Diplomat’s Son” (which includes a sample from MIA) and “I Think Your A Contra.”  Again I must stress this will probably need to be a 3-4 listen album to completely get your final verdict on it but I think it’s going to really make an impact this year and live up to the debut effort from 2008.