Vampire Weekend “Contra”
Standout tracks - "Horchata," "Cousins," "White Sky"

The hardest thing to do in the music industry is to record an outstanding follow-up album after having a breakout hit. Vampire Weekend do exactly that with their sophmore album, “Contra.” This new record shows the Weekenders spent their two-year layoff trying to grow as musicians.
Songs like “White Sky” and “Taxi Cab” show an influence of keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij’s side project Discovery while “California English” sounds like it was produced by Animal Collective’s Avey Tare. Even though “Contra” feels somewhat different than their original self-titled album, Vampire Weekend still makes great pop music with the occaisional afro-pop drum beat thrown in, which is why we fell in love with them in the first place.