Their first LP (self-titled) shows definite promise. It's a fun, catchy, poppy album with light ska influence. Almost every song's a sing-along and the album even features some great string arrangements. "M79's" arrangement stands out. With it, the song pulls off a baroque feel. Tell me, how many indie-pop bands out there write a song with legitimate baroque influences? Not many. Maybe the fact that every member of the 4-piece graduated from Columbia University has something to do with it.
That's right. These ivy-leaguers pooled their brain-power to produce one fun, catchy album. Can they do it again?
We'll see on tuesday. Actually, you can pretty much see right now. They're streaming the entire album on myspace.
From a quick listen through on myspace, it's clear the band has progressed.
Contra will be it's own entity, not just an additional 10 songs for the band's first album. They're using more digital
effects (but who isn't these days?). "Horchata" uses some cool digital stuff. The beginning of the song is reminiscent of Radiohead's "Kid A"--at least the type of digital effect used. Not a bad thing to be reminded of.
Though the first single released was "Horchata," the song that seems to generate the most hype these days is "Cousins." It's definitely a cool track. It's fast-paced and funky, reminiscent of surf-rock. The drum-beat is driving, the bass line gets funky, the guitar hooks are great and of course lead singer, Ezra Koenig, delivers a catchy melody with lyrics that don't quite make sense (but the song's so fun it's inconsequential). They played it on Letterman last night and it was bangin'. Check it out.
So Contra's on it's way. Let's see how it goes over.
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