#2 – Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
Here’s a case where a band’s later work helps boost my opinion of their debut.
If Vampire Weekend’s self-titled first album was the last good thing they ever did, I would still love it, I’m sure, but the band itself might have been written off as a bunch of college kids who listened to Graceland a lot and got lucky.
But their sophomore release, Contra, was deeper and weirder, proving they had only begun to tap into their creative well. And this year’s Modern Vampires of the City is a gorgeous album, still the best thing I’ve heard all year.
That knowledge makes this debut record all the more impressive in hindsight. It turns out it wasn’t the best they could do, but it’s still amazing.
I see a salty message written in the eaves
The ground beneath my feet
The hot garbage and concrete
And now the tops of buildings, I can see them too
The Argentines collapse in defeat
The admiralty surveys the remnants of the fleet
The ground beneath their feet
Is a nautically-mapped sheet
As thin as paper
While it slips away from view
Meet Me In Montauk 
Well, first of all, I still think their debut album rivals their new one. Both are stellar.
And I think your comments today underscore my point from yesterday. It is, in part, the diversity in sound and style running not only in this album but in VW’s subsequent work that gives this album even greater distinction and, thus, a slight edge over Mann’s album, which, while lovely, is not so different from other Mann albums.