By Brittany Kron | The Connector
Vampire Weekend’s 2007’s self-titled album received polarized responses with very few left in the middle-ground. It was either detested with hipster-hating rage or embraced as quirky indie-rock. Whichever side of the battle you found yourself on, a general consensus was that the album seemed more of an in-process wordplay than the result of a progressive exploration.
But even among the band’s dissidents, Vampire Weekend’s latest album, “Contra,” is seen as a significant step up from its first attempt. The gestalt of the album seems appropriately engineered for both the intent musical analyst — as it’s lyrically rich — and likewise workable as mindless white noise.