Oxford Comma
March 6, 2008
Song: Oxford Comma
Artist: Vampire Weekend
Album: Vampire Weekend
Link: Vampire Weekend
Genre: Indie Rock, Indie-pop, and a hint of African rhythms
Mood: lighthearted, bubbly, playful
Description: Vampire Weekend is brand new; their self-titled album was released in February. They seem to combine indie-pop with African-ish influences (though it’s harder to tell on this song than some of their others) and a wise-cracking attitude. Oxford commas, in case you didn’t know, are the last comma in a series; for example, this song is good, very good–>,<– and really quite good. Apparently, they really hate them: “Who the fuck gives about an Oxford comma, We’ve seen those English dramas too-oo, they’re cru-el.” I used the hyphens there to show where the singer goes incredibly high pitched. It’s so high pitched that I can’t even tell if its falsetto or he’s just insane. But those vocal dalliances are really cool, spicing up a song that doesn’t even need spicing up. On top of that, they use some really cool instruments that I haven’t the faintest idea what are. Is it a flute? Or maybe just a piano? I have no idea, but it works. The tempo also works, which starts pretty causally and then slowly builds intensity so that you don’t even realize it happening. All in all, this song, and really the entire self-titled debut really shows promise for what could very well be an up-and-coming band, so look out – Vampire Weekend has arrived…
