Having a Vampire Weekend

Thoughts on that Vampire Weekend record:

Thought A): King Sunny Ade sits in with some first-year EngLit and Philosophy undergrads who are putting together a New Pornographers tribute band. To warm themselves up, they try to imagine what it would sound like if The Strokes had written "Sloop John B."

Thought B): Despite all that and much more to its superficial discredit, the album is almost criminally listenable and fun.

Thought C): Which is also to its discredit, in the end, as it yields up pretty much everything it's ever going to yield up on the very first listen. I've listened to the thing 1 1/2 times, and a lot of it is already starting to sour on me. It's at the far, opposite end of the artistic spectrum from Eyes Wide Shut or that new Wu Tang Clan record or the novels of Virginia Woolf – works that are truly unlikeable, but which compel endless revisiting. (To be fair, it's not like they set out to record To the Lighthouse in sound, or anything. Being lite and hooky is just fine. It's just that these hooks don't go in very deep. It's like fishing with shiny nails.)

Thought D): But still, good driving music. And good to sprinkle across mix CDs. And kids like it.

But see for yourself: