Vampire Weekend - Self Titled

by Trent McMartin

Where Paul Simon meets the Arctic Monkeys. Rostam Batmanglij's keyboards newave it up plenty, evoking beach party delights. Chris Baio's bass lines are blantantly Sting-ish in their own unsubtle way, providing a Police-like, or better yet, a Clash "Guns in Brixton" type rhythmic background. And singer Ezra Koenig's lyrics are smart and coherent, though at times border on being pure drivel. But I wouldn't expect any less from a recent Columbia University grad, who targets, of all things, the use of the Oxford comma. There's nothing more punk rock than denouncing a comma that's used immediately before a grammatical conjunction.

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