Blog: Stereogum

With " Horchata ," Vampire Weekend offered up an even-keeled primer to their forthcoming Contra alongside an expanded instrumental palette that featured marimba, kalimba, and an eBayed Yamaha VSS-30. For fans of Ezra's more frantically paced guitar picking there's the more familial and festive "Cousins": The African instrumentation is left in favor of clanging bells and a more manic BPM, caffeinated rhythm section work and trilling guitars, yelps, more along the lines of "California English" (which came live from California ). You saw it live , now have a listen to [...]