ALBUM REVIEWS: VAMPIRE WEEKEND and FYFE DANGERFIELD
 | | |
Vampire Weekend
Contra
XL
Rating: 4/5
With their debut album, Vampire Weekend produced an instant, preppy-indie hit, each song bracingly fresh and perfectly formed. And this follow-up sounds just as studied without feeling like a repeat; myriad tempos overlaid with dense arrangements and Peter Pan vocals. Every song is poised - taut and perfectly balanced between waterfalls of runaway rhythm and a playful, carnivalesque parade of instruments from electro-treated vox to the Congolese thumb piano, zabumba, shekere and rebolo. Vibrant, breezy opener Horchata is a signpost for what follows - an invigorating hotch-potch of styles nicked from just about every continent, knitted together with soul and beguiling intuition, that will be soundtracking summers across the world.
Fyfe Dangerfield
Fly Yellow Moon
Geffen
Rating: 4/5
The scratchy, buzzing opener When You Walk In The Room is full of the exuberance, sunshine and wilfully offbeat production Guillemots fans will warm to. But Fyfe's mercurial allure as their frontman - his inventiveness and confidence to strike out for those musical hinterlands regardless of the prevailing wind - initially feels much weaker sans bandmates. The songs are less elaborate, taking Fyfe into territory well stocked with singer-songwriters, from Ed Harcourt to Josh Ritter. Elements of both are evoked in the intimate piano-led Livewire. But even High On The Tide, with its simplistic whistled refrain, and song-by-numbers Faster Than The Setting Sun, do possess an indefinable charm. Disarmingly rewarding listening.
- STEPHEN MOORE
|
|
|
|
|
|