I’ve a special place in my black heart for popular artists working in much-derided genres who nonetheless do great work. Work on par, or (shock! horror!) better, than that from mediums or genres that most people automatically assume to be high art – like theatre, ballet, or dubstep. The world of pop is a much-derided genre. It’s seen as frivolous, fey and, indeed, gay. Of course, if anybody said so to my face, I wouldn’t hesitate to beat on their chest while crying, “You brute! You brute!†And I hope that would be an end to the matter. On their eponymous debut album, Vampire Weekend offer a better reply to the catcalls. Eleven shimmering pop songs infused with intelligence, good humour, and a little collegiate craziness. The Columbia University quartet have the potential to bring some class to the masses. If the masses let them, that is. Despite having songs seemingly custom built for your young niece to sing along with on the radio, there is a problem. The problem is class. Not that they lack it. They simply have the wrong type. That’s right, these poor, pitiful creatures are _upper_ class. (Topsy-turvey world, pop!) What’s more, VW don’t attempt to hide their shameful background by dressing as tramps - like The Strokes. Nope, they wear their Ivy League educations like a badge (or rather, a Ralph Lauren logo). VW will have their clothing preppy, their lyrics laced with literary (and architectural and nautical) references, and their music rinsed through that stuff most people only listen to as students – what’s it called again? Oh yeah, world music. Therefore resistance could be great. Who do these rich assholes think they are barging onto the music scene? Don’t they know music is one of the few social equalizers we have left? And what's this? They’re playing black people’s music while dressed as Republicans! Jesus, they probably _are_ Republicans! Well, if so, they’re the PJ O’Rourke of pop. Sly-humoured social and society critics with a nonconformist spirit and a half-hidden (non-Republican) pining for a better world. This modus operandi is highly apparent in the breezy piano-driven Walcott. Songwriter Ezra Koenig extols his titular buddy to get “out of Cape Cod tonightâ€. In support, Koenig humorously lists all the things he finds wrong with this rich man’s playground, “bottleneck is a shitshow…Hyannisport is a ghettoâ€. Instead he points Walcott to “the mystic seaport.†Without saying so overtly, Koenig’s narrator fears for his pal’s soul. On stirring orchestral closer The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance, Koenig employs some nursery rhyme imagery, as well as a falsetto, to suggest the fragile and ephemeral nature of childhood in an increasingly corporate-controlled world. “The pinstripe men of morning/are coming for to dance/(with) $40 million dollars/ the kids don’t stand a chance.†Thematically, as well as in elegiac sweep, this is a redux of Sting’s actually quite good 80s power ballad Russians for us more easily embarrassed folk of the 21st Century. Campus offers opposition to the soulless culture of the “hook-up†that’s swept through US colleges in recent years. Keonig’s lovelorn narrator has trouble moving on to the next conquest like you’re supposed to. He asks himself, “How am I supposed to pretend/I never want to see you again?†Heart on sleeve Koenig evokes beautifully the college romance – and the romance of college—with his plaintive closing refrain: “In the afternoon you’re out on the stone and grass/And I’m sleeping on the balcony after classâ€. Not all Koenigs lyrics are as easy to understand, though. In the otherwise effortlessly accessible opener Mansard Roof, we’re left to ponder the meaning of “The Argentines collapse in defeat/The admiralty surveys the remnants of the fleet/The ground beneath their feet/Is a nautically-mapped sheet.â€I fear Koenig indulges too much in that great mainstream artist David Milch (writer of Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, and Deadwood) calls fanciful association. That is, references too personal for your audience to understand. Milch finds them self-indulgent and strikes them out. Koenig must follow suit if he wants to hit the mainstream as hard as (still) the greatest indie pop writer of the moment, Alex Turner. Or perhaps Vampire Weekend have done enough already. Afterall, hasn't Kanye West already rocked the preppy look to great success? Let’s hope it's paved the way for the real deal. Jaunty, fun songs like Oxford Comma and Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa deserve to be heard by an audience wider than the kewl kidz on the web -- most of whom, as is their nature, have already moved on to the Next Small Thing. And couldn’t your young niece do with a bit of culture? No offence, gentle reader, but if she's anything like you, I think she probably could. . . ."Vampire Weekend" released 29 Jan 08.VW @ "MySpace":http://www.myspace.com/vampireweekend VW @ "Hype Machine":http://hypem.com/artist/vampire+weekendMy review of "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa":http://mog.com/FluxCapacitor/blog_post/83765Over the jump - listen to "Campus".
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