In this three part series, I am going to attempt to make a connection between current social trends, and three of 2010’s biggest record releases. These are Vampire Weekend’s ‘Contra’, The National’s ‘High Violet’, and ‘The Suburbs’ by Arcade Fire…
Music of the Moment, Part 1: Vampire Weekend – Contra
Music is art. And art, by definition, is an expression of the culture in which it finds itself. Songwriting is story telling, the basic tradition we have continued since the dawn of everything. Any good collection of songs should tell us something about ourselves, our society, and the part we play in it. It is this feature that generally makes for a good album, (and makes the critic’s end of year Top 10 list.)
In this three part series, I am going to attempt to make a connection between current social trends, and three of 2010’s biggest record releases. These are Vampire Weekend’s ‘Contra’, The National’s ‘High Violet’, and ‘The Suburbs’ by Arcade Fire.
As a can-kicking, school bag dragging child of the late 90s, I grew up listening to what made sense to me. Blink 182’s ‘Take Off Your Pants and Jacket,’ and New Found Glory’s ‘Sticks and Stones’ made for heavy rotation with their ear-tickling songs about girls and good times. Life was quite simple, and so was the music. But that has all changed, and the artists mentioned have insightfully caught what that change is, and what it means.
There is no point starting a discussion into Vampire Weekend’s take on the ‘state of things’ without first peering at Paul Simon’s 1986 release ‘Graceland’. Vampire Weekend have made no secret of their admiration of this record, with their curious lifting of the many drum samples, calypso guitar chops, and other various musical elements that made Simon’s record critically important.
The controversial album, performed in apartheid-ridden South Africa despite the cultural embargo, spoke of ‘lasers in the jungle somewhere’, ‘staccato signals of constant information’, and the obvious implications of race and class. Everything comes from somewhere, and ‘Contra’ attempts to tackle similar themes as we near the tipping point of this current information age.
With a smirk on its face, ‘Contra’ whispers about the modern class struggle from the winner’s point of view. ‘Cousins’ is a lesson on nepotistic family ties, and the influence ‘old money’ has on the course of almost every society on the planet. ‘If your birthright is interest you could just accrue it all’, suggests singer Ezra Koenig, and there’s a ‘(family) line that’s always running’. Better yet, ‘you could (always) turn your back on the bitter world’ that does not understand the ironic ‘pain’ of having too much of everything.
‘Taxi Cab’ tells the story of a relationship based in a foreign, probably war torn nation. The protagonist and love interest (maybe the wide eyed girl peering at us from the album cover?), travel from ‘compound to compound, lazy and safe’ from the harsh reality revealed ‘when the taxi door (is) open wide’.
The main character openly states that ‘you’re not a victim, but neither am I’, and nor will they ever be. The track slightly resemblances the storyline of Simon’s ‘Diamonds of the Souls of Her Shoes’, with the privileged young lady prancing around the weary locals as they work the rough diamond trade, unknowingly funding her outlandish lifestyle.
The standout track of the record is the finale ‘I Think Ur a Contra’. There is an accusatory tone to the song, aiming ‘revolution thoughts’ at the listener. Claims that ‘you wanted good schools’, ’friends with pools’, ‘rock and roll’, yet ‘complete control’, carve out piece by piece our delusional way of life. Vampire Weekend are not ‘rock and roll’, they never claimed to be. And they are adamant that you aren’t either.
Like the film ‘Into the Wild’, ‘Run’ suggests we escape to ‘worlds away from cars, and all the stars and bars’, but the question is: could we possibly give up these comfortable Parnell-based lifestyles we lead? Probably not, and that is the point of ‘Contra’. Adding elements of African Pop to their well established baroque-fusion, Vampire Weekend have created an aristocratic album that asks all the awkward questions. The question now is: how are we going to respond?
To be continued…
By Theo Sangster, 22 November 2010.
Leave a Reply