• Record Label: XL
  • Release Date: Jan 29, 2008
Metascore
82

Universal acclaim - based on 38 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 35 out of 38
  2. Negative: 0 out of 38
  1. Fully realized debut albums like Vampire Weekend come along once in a great while, and these songs show that this band is smart, but not too smart for their own good.
  2. Bring any baggage you want to this record, and it still returns nothing but warm, airy, low-gimmick pop, peppy, clever, and yes, unpretentious--four guys who listened to some Afro-pop records, picked up a few nice ideas, and then set about making one of the most refreshing and replayable indie records in recent years.
  3. Not since Talking Heads bowed out with their masterful 1988 swan song Naked has NYC been so dutifully represented by such a melodically robust collection as the 11 that comprise this eponymous redux of Vampire Weekend’s acclaimed “Blue CD-R” demo.
  4. 80
    Cosmopolitan, anglophile, afrobeat--Vampire Weekend are in an Ivy League of their own.
  5. Q Magazine
    80
    Extremely inventive, a litttle uptight and slightly high on their own cleverness, Vampire Weekend are the musical equivalent of a Wes Anderson movie. [Mar 2008, p.109]
  6. Their strength is that, musically as well as sartorially, they’re unafraid to plunder and repurpose styles previously considered naffer than Bluetooth headsets.
  7. On their debut, Vampire Weekend mostly earn points the old-fashioned way: by writing likable songs you'll be glad to revisit next month.
  8. Under The Radar
    90
    This is likely to be the most fun release of the year. [Winter 2008, p.84]
  9. In places almost carnivalesque, this is a good times album that celebrates positive aspects of the world.
  10. Behind the penny loafers and songs about commas, there's a bold band that can balance dextrous originality with an innate pop sensibility.
  11. The production throughout Vampire Weekend is perfect, holding all the various threads together as a coherent whole that manages to sound simple without ever being underwhelming.
  12. 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.
  13. 80
    Vampire Weekend have made a truely fresh, fun, and smart record. [Feb 2008, p.91]
  14. This cosmopolitan quartet has streamlined ska, post-punk, chamber music and Afropop into a glorious ultramodern groove.
  15. Vampire Weekend's eponymous debut, with its wide range of references rationed across a collection of brief pop morsels, proves the early fascination was no fluke.
  16. Alternative Press
    70
    Thier debut album is one of the most inventive in recent memory. [Apr 2008, p.153]
  17. Vampire Weekend is an exemplar of contemporary establishment indie rock, sandblasted clean but striking a dirty pose nonetheless.
  18. By the end of the album’s blissful, sparse, empty-Saharan-landscape closer 'The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance,' perfection doesn’t seem to matter much anymore--especially when your mind’s too preoccupied on starting Vampire Weekend again from the beginning.
  19. Vampire Weekend is indie rock with its edges sanded off, polished to a clean, sparkling sheen.
  20. Vampire Weekend banks on showering its tribal pop with lyrics poised for literary analysis, skimping pretentious by appearing completely natural.
  21. Vampire Weekend’s debut comes across as a confident, precise, and, for better and worse, mature collection.
  22. At its best, Vampire Weekend takes the exceedingly familiar template of indie rock and invigorates it with a chiming guitar sound that suggests the band has been spending its downtime browsing afropop.org.
  23. The sheer cleverness of every track is endearing. But it’s also brittle; these songs could use just a little more heart.
  24. As if on cue amid the recent critical hemming and hawing over indie rock's cultural appropriations drops Vampire Weekend's official debut with enough justified buzz to render the entire debate moot.
  25. 80
    Vampire Weekend’s version of globalization is too tightly and smartly woven to be mere dilettantism, and at times Koenig is emphatic, even desperate, about escaping white-bred familiarity.
  26. Listeners are only too lucky to get a hot breath of summer fun in these cold winter months.
  27. It's rather a genuinely exuberant, joyously infectious and sheerly celebratory affair, its tribal drums, parping keyboards and rippling, brassy guitars offset by sweet vocal harmonies and reverb-laden solos, with Koenig's witty and literate lyrics marking out their crucial difference.
  28. This is a magnificent debut, filled with endless melodies, memorable hooks and plenty of toe-tapping moments.
  29. 70
    Although the vocals initially may spark fears of self-indulgent been there’s and done that’s, the musical beast which duels with the lyrics stays on point and goes beyond the point in miraculous fashion.
  30. What is key to this album's effectiveness is how Vampire Weekend's rhythmic momentum enervates the filler, turning another band's less flamboyant 'Campus' into a cymbal-crash-on-every-hit mini-epic, or the nearly irritating 'Blake's Got a New Face' into drunken singalong.
  31. At less than 40 minutes long, Vampire Weekend sounds paradoxically both brimming with confidence and something put down as a marker for the future.
  32. It’s ecstatic music, surely; and intense, too, even as it’s joyful.
  33. It's probably not substantial enough that it will stick in my head all year (and possibly not even until the ground thaws), but it is a highly enjoyable pop album from a young group who are riding some hype and getting slapped with backlash at the same time.
  34. Vibe
    80
    Vampire Weekend have suceeded in putting the hips back in hipster. [Mar 2008, p.98]
  35. Affecting a clarity and delight that pleases the many and confounds the some, their lyrically alluring, structurally hop-skip-and-jumping songs aren't deep. They're just thoughtful fun.
User Score
8.6

Universal acclaim- based on 321 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Negative: 14 out of 321
  1. Jul 22, 2011
    10
    It's rare to find an album as perfect as this. Vampire Weekend has such a unique sound and flavor if you will that it makes it impossible notIt's rare to find an album as perfect as this. Vampire Weekend has such a unique sound and flavor if you will that it makes it impossible not to love. A very impressive start to a very impressive new band. Full Review »
  2. AaaronS.
    May 10, 2008
    3
    A music blogger sensation earlier this year. Highly overrated pop record that I chalk up to 'I don't get it'.
  3. Oct 7, 2013
    10
    A perfect album trough and through. The self-titled album is one of the most refreshing pieces in modern music. Arcade Fire has almostA perfect album trough and through. The self-titled album is one of the most refreshing pieces in modern music. Arcade Fire has almost seemingly invented a style of music than can be defined as the "Vampire Weekend Style." A perfect album, no song is a let down, it's pure fun that makes one envision themselves in Cape Cod. Full Review »