Best Songs of 2010 â #6
Vampire Weekend had a huge 2008, when their debut album took the critical world by storm and their fresh, smart sound felt like something brand-new even as it reached back to 80s-era Paul Simon.
2010 was a different story, at least in terms of the hype. The band released their sophomore album, Contra, early in the year and made nary a wave, despite the fact that it’s a brilliant piece of work, expanding on and deepening the vibe they created on their debut.
Contra features a lot of experimental tracks, including one heavily auto-tuned song and another that samples M.I.A., but the song that put the biggest smile on my face is more of a “classic” Vampire Weekend tune. ‘White Sky’ features the African sounds (by way of Simon’s Graceland) that helped the band make their name.
‘White Sky’ details a stroll through Manhattan on what I picture as a beautiful day. Little details like a pair of mirrors creating an infinite loop in a department store entrance and a Richard Serra sculpture at MOMA really set the scene, and the ecstatic burst of chanting in the chorus capture the exuberance.
A modern piece of glass work
Down on the corner that you walk each day in passing
The elderly sales clerk won’t eye us with suspicion
The whole immortal corporation’s given its permission
A little stairway
A little bit of carpet
A pair of mirrors that
Are facing one another
Out in both directions
A thousand little Julias
That come together
In the middle of Manhattan
You waited since lunch
It all comes at once
Around the corner
The house that modern art built
A house for modern art
To keep it out the closets
Of people who might own it
The sins of pride and envy
And on the second floor
The Richard Serra Skate Park
You waited since lunch
It all comes at once
Sit on the park wall
Ask all the right questions
Why are the horses racing taxis in the winter?
Look up at the buildings, imagine who might live there
Imagining your Wolfords in a ball upon the sink there
You waited since lunch
It all comes at once
Meet Me In Montauk 
very Graceland-esque,which is a good thing in my book.