Vampire Weekend : Vampire Weekend

It's surprisingly easy to dive into Vampire

Weekend's odd world, even as harpsichords crash into genteel Afro-pop ("M79")

and characters debate grammar over bouncy organ and guitar ("Oxford Comma").

The young band's saving grace is compactness, which not only saves thousands of

dollars in kora-player and backup-singer bills, but also keeps things alert and

accessible. Ezra Koenig crafts flirtatious vocal melodies, rarely falling back

on the novelty of his lyrics, which remain unusal throughout ("But this feels

so unnatural / Peter Gabriel too"). For an African-flavored hook, VW needs just

a prickly twirl of guitar ("Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"), and the band does without

a tacky section of hand-drummers, too—drummer Chris Tomson interprets

African and Caribbean rhythms with resourceful pluck. Still, this self-titled

debut basically has two moods—perky ("A-Punk") and

kinda-blue-but-still-perky ("I Stand Corrected")—which puts VW in slight

danger of sounding like indie rock's Congo River cruise-boat band. There's reason

to hope those limitations won't last, because Vampire Weekend seems to

understand where quirk ends and decent songwriting begins.