Wednesday, February 3, 2010

White Sky


It must be just awesome to be an infectiously nice person. Your entire life would be completely bipolar: everyone you meet will immediately either swoon around you or desperately want to punch your smarmy little face in. Every handshake is a coin toss, every greeting is a question. You'd never be bored.

There are nice guys, and there is Vampire Weekend. With almost no public fanfare, the collared New York Cityzens poked their heads out from behind safe university walls and said "Hey we're Vampire Weekend" in that adorable accent of theirs. And the world fell in love. Well, half of it did.

Luckily, since I'm such a positive guy and all, I was a swoonig like you wouldn't beleive. I say luckily because otherwise, in the alternate universe where I like to kick kittens, that band's second effort Contra would have gone by completely unnoticed. My friend, believe me when I say this: the world would be a much less nicer place without this album.

Ezra is right there, right up in your ear. Like he saw something amazing go down in the old town centre and he just has to tell you. A 40 minute deep-breathe-in. A wistful narrative spoken through trumpets, bongos, autotune and the rolling waves of a west African coastline. This album, I beleive, is a true scrapbook. Slices and snapshots of some other place, some other time, some other feeling.

Apparently I'm swooning so much that I can hear colours, because this album is so yellow that it hurts my eyes. If you give it a go, and your head feels a little bit funny afterwards, don't worry. The haters haven't punched you in the face.

Your cheeks just hurt from smiling.

1 comment:

  1. I would have been sold on this album completely from this witty and wonderfully written piece...

    If I had not already heard the album and thought black thoughts about it.

    But that's why i'm here- to disagree with you about everything in life.

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