It seems that in a blink of an eye have obtained a recording contract and produced debut which has forced everyone to sit up and take some notice. And a debut which is impossible to dislike.
Their self-titled debut has all the intellectual air which has been the mainstay of The Shins and it's full of references to their affluent backgrounds (Louis Vutton gets a name check) but in terms of the band's sound, they are keen to look further than freshly cut college lawns of the east coast for inspiration.
In fact it's a jumble of African pop, 60s pop and indie guitar sounds. Track Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa is a perfect fusion of world sounds and indie, melodic pop. Put quite simply Vampire Weekend take the joyfulness of African harmonies and instrumentation and turn them towards their own universe. The band have even described their sound as 'Upper West Side Soweto'.
The result is songs like A-Punk' ripe with infectious riffs and warm flutes, a track bursting with energy and ideas. Meanwhile M79 sounds like band member Mark Mothersbaugh at his most jaunty, all studious strings and assiduous drumming. The production throughout Vampire Weekend is perfect, holding all the various threads together as a coherent whole that manages to sound simple without ever being underwhelming.
But there are weak moments on the record, notably the tepid I Stand Corrected, but these are easily outnumbered by tracks like Campus, which describes singer Koenig watching a girl walk across college grounds after a class. It's the self-awareness and eye for detail which separates Vampire Weekend from their peers, who sadly descend into indie-by-numbers.
Ultimately it's this sense of the group being so at ease with themselves that makes the album so enjoyable. While their studious and middle class backgrounds may have resulted in an insular album, their honesty and playful natures means that while the band take their music seriously, there's a sense they can poke fun at themselves. And why not, they've produced an album which would achieve an Ivy League first class honours degree.