Two bands from New York state. Both young, both white. Both making a very modern kind of indie-pop. Both releasing their sophomore albums early in the year. In 2010, we should know; gone is depression... gone is moody introspection and isolation... gone is nihilism and noise. Today, we're in a globalised world and we're in this together. We're looking forward, and outward. We're thinking about communities and the environment. We're looking for solutions not destruction... or at least, that's the message we find here.
Yeasayer and Vampire Weekend are the latest in something of an East Coast, wasp-ish wave. Sharing a millieu with the equally contemporary Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear and TV on the Radio, the hottest indie-ware on the planet right now is clay-baked in Brooklyn and New Jersey.
There's a general wellspring of shared musical heritage among them - 80's art rock being the main fertiliser for this crop, but also there's a distinctive undercurrent of house music - as reinvented by indie kids. Much of this stuff is ready made for club-land, both directly in a similar way to the eighties pop was consciously aimed at the dancefloor and the radio in equal measure, and also in it's receptivity to the more post-modern hip electronic remix which, as ever, lends the original some cred-by-association.
Vampire Weekend are the more famous of the pair as a result of the huge festival mega-hit "A-Punk", but I've personally struggled to share the popular love to date. They exude the particular flavourc of hubris that only relatively, wealthy, educated, first world young adults can manage; an air which happily and energetically informs you that everything they do is "Amazing!! and Fabulous!! (LOL!!)". It's perhaps too easy, even a bit lazy to fall into the trap of sniping at the naievity. Sure, we were then when Paul Simon discovered Africa the first time around. But you can't blame the kids for the wonder of their own re-discovery.
Nevertheless, I found the campus-in-joke-y-"aren't-we-clever"-ness of debut
Vampire Weekend hard to take, in the full knowledge that this categorically makes me a grumpy old man. Which is not to say it's not great pop. It's just a little too young and happy for me.
New album "Contra" is slightly different and to my possibly cholerical ears, an improvement. Their wholesale appropriation of african and latin styles has been the subject of broad debate in the blogosphere. Yet again we appear to have white musicians "stealing" authentic black music and making a mass-market killing along the way. The equally compelling counter argument is by introducing the music to a white audience, barriers are broken down and understanding increased. In my view, if they've been inspired by Afican musicians, and they very clearly have, they should publicly and vocally talk about it and support the artists and their music in return. It's a win-win.
In any case the album is brimful and overflowing with sunshine and harmony, as carefree and wonderous as a bag of Skittles.
By contrast Yeasayer's debut album All Hour Cymbals had a late seventies hippy folk rock sound, suggesting both the soundscapes of Dark Side era Pink Floyd, and the harmonies and spirits of Crosby, Stills and Nash. This time out have turned their face fully to Old Europe. More accessible and less jovial than Vampire Weekend, they're nevertheless immensely likeable, hummable, and friendly bunch of songs. This is the shiny-romantic, glitterball-lit end of the Smash Hits age, with echoes of The Thompson Twins, or A-Ha, Tears for Fears, Fine Young Cannibals, Crowded House. Other people hear Fleetwood Mac, and as noted in the Word review of Odd Blood, the album perhaps resonates most directly with Peter Gabriel's more chart friendly output from the 'So..' era - big drums, muscular bass and sweet synths... there's little trace of (either old or nu-) punk's sweaty stains. It's all perfectly in tune with this early millenial cultural fascination with the eighties.
They have a wonderful way with harmonies (in my opinion the magical secret ingredient in great pop), and an enjoyably unpredictable way of songwriting. Opener "The Children" is a strange choice in the listing, full of distorted vocals that make it sound like your record player's on the blink. First single "Ambling Alp" has a deconstructed, harmony-centred sound similar to Animal Collective's recent output. "Love Me Girl" has house music synths and breakbeat touches.
My favourite so far is the emotional "I Remember"... sounding like an aching melancholic rainy Saturday afternoon.
So, highlights from the pair;
Yeasayer's Odd Blood: "Ambling Alp" and "I Remember"
Vampire Weekend's Contra: opener "Horchata" is the most brain-maddeningly infectious slice of anything I've heard in quite a while, "Holiday" possibly the second most, "Diplomat's Son" is just all in lovely.
Gosh, it's been ages since there was such a simple, honest, male pop record and here come two at once. Set the fun to 11 and go.
