VEGA INTL. Night School
by Neon Indian
User Score
8.6

Universal acclaim- based on 68 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 63 out of 68
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 68
  3. Negative: 3 out of 68
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  1. reyyannajeeb
    Oct 19, 2015
    10
    This is an incredible album. The upbeat energy is fantastic and it feels like Adam Palomo just let everything out without any censorship. Definitely different from his older albums but a great great album.
  2. CiphirSol
    Oct 16, 2015
    9
    Anyone can clearly hear that this is the culmination of Neon Indian's various sounds and musical identities. This is a fantastic leap forward and an overly pleasant listen indeed.
  3. Ombudsperson
    Oct 24, 2015
    8
    VEGA wants you to feel like you're walking down a dimly lit alley way drenched in sweat after dancing the night away in a mid 80's disco and it succeeds mostly due to some authentic production and Neon Indian's vocals which suite the style. Though the synths are sometimes a bit messy and muffle the vocals in some songs and the last third of the album just isn't as good as the first songs,VEGA wants you to feel like you're walking down a dimly lit alley way drenched in sweat after dancing the night away in a mid 80's disco and it succeeds mostly due to some authentic production and Neon Indian's vocals which suite the style. Though the synths are sometimes a bit messy and muffle the vocals in some songs and the last third of the album just isn't as good as the first songs, I don't think it should detract from the great, dance-able tunes to be found here. Recommended. Highlights: Street Level, Slumlord and The Glitzy Hive.… Expand
  4. hiimsmart
    Mar 27, 2016
    8
    I wish I could give this an 8.5 on this site, but I will settle for an 8 and here's why:

    I love that Alan Palomo had this dynamic shift when he made this record. If you listened to Era Extrana and then this album, you'd swear they were not made by the same person. With this record, Neon Indian broke out of this shell where they were defined as this Chillwave act and sort of came into    I wish I could give this an 8.5 on this site, but I will settle for an 8 and here's why:

    I love that Alan Palomo had this dynamic shift when he made this record. If you listened to Era Extrana and then this album, you'd swear they were not made by the same person. With this record, Neon Indian broke out of this shell where they were defined as this Chillwave act and sort of came into their own. I wish this on to all the other 'Chillwave' acts. (Though I feel like Chaz Bundick is taking Toro y Moi in an odd, retro direction.)

    This album, for the first 2/3rds of it, is seamlessly mixed together into what I perceive as either the life of a NYC Club Rat, or just Alan Palomo's life in NYC. From the first track, Hit Parade, to the track Techno Clique, you feel like you are going along with Alan Palomo as he's telling you and anyone who is willing to listen about the **** he's going through as he goes about life in NYC. From him talking about his friend , Annie, going missing to ripping into his landlord on Slumlord, you really get a sense of how sporadic and volatile his life is, or at least how he perceives it to be.

    My least favourite tracks, and the reason I don't rate this album higher, are the last 4 songs. (Granted, I do catch myself randomly singing 'C'est la vie say the casualties!') To me, they seem like they were either leftover song from the recording session of this album, or Alan just really liked these tracks and wanted to include them on here instead of throwing them on a b-side of one of the singles for this album. (Because they straight up sound like B-Sides)

    I'd say you could listen to this album from track 1-10 and get an enjoyable musical experience. Listen to tracks 11-14 at your own leisure (and discretion).    … Expand
  5. jollasapph
    Nov 3, 2015
    9
    As opposed to Alan Palomo's previous album Era Extrana, Vega Intl. Night School is led with danceable, clever tracks that immerse you most not only into dance, but the very life of an 80's nightclub. The transition between songs is one of the of the most spectacular qualities on this album, and enhancing the flow of the album. The album kicks off with Hit Parade, which lives up to its nameAs opposed to Alan Palomo's previous album Era Extrana, Vega Intl. Night School is led with danceable, clever tracks that immerse you most not only into dance, but the very life of an 80's nightclub. The transition between songs is one of the of the most spectacular qualities on this album, and enhancing the flow of the album. The album kicks off with Hit Parade, which lives up to its name as sort of a parade with eccentric, old-school styles compressed in a wild pot-pourri of different sounds. The next song Annie, however, immediately finishes this initial streak of glory. It is not a good example of a song you would hear in a night club upon starting. It could serve ambiguously inside Neon Indian's previous album. The album immediately picks itself into a brilliant threesome of tracks that follow. Each bears major similarities as a paradoxical wind up-wind down track, that is heavy in nostalgia. I like the humor on Smut! in which Palomo names the title of the album and his background voice says "Hey that's the name of the album!" In addition, Smut! pulls itself as a sexy song that impressed me greatly with its great samples and synths. The lowest of these three Bozo which proves to be too much of an experimental track to be added in the middle of an album. Following Bozo is my favorite song of the album The Glitzy Hive. While being extremely catchy, the song does not lose sight of the quirky nostaligia underone present throughout the album. Palomo pulls some of the cleverest lyrics throughout the album in this track as a seductive, provoking tete-a-tete is shaped. The album continues to be high with amazing tracks such as Dear Skorpio Magazine and Slumdog, but slumps with uninteresting tracks within the last 4 tracks. However, 61 Cygni Ave. does function as a great closer track, but that's the only plus. Overall, I was entertained by this album and its fluidity, but annoyed by its quiet vocals and its outlier tracks such as Annie and Bozo. To approach this album, you need to relate it to an actual night club gathering to pull in the full effect.… Expand
  6. nagnagnag
    Apr 4, 2016
    9
    VEGA Intl. Night School takes its name from Alan Palomo's dance side project VEGA and the album is a culmination of both strands of his DNA, the woozy and warped synth-pop of Neon Indian and the aerated nu-disco of VEGA. The album is an almost drastic departure from 2011's Era Extraña, a mopey and somewhat self-serious album with several patches of what is usually called the ''sophomoreVEGA Intl. Night School takes its name from Alan Palomo's dance side project VEGA and the album is a culmination of both strands of his DNA, the woozy and warped synth-pop of Neon Indian and the aerated nu-disco of VEGA. The album is an almost drastic departure from 2011's Era Extraña, a mopey and somewhat self-serious album with several patches of what is usually called the ''sophomore slump''. Instead we get a true blast of a record: VEGA Intl. is a perfectly sequenced, spellbinding retro-dance odyssey, at once some imaginary score to a seedy Scorsese film and a drug-addled virtual reality session. Palomo pays homage to the technicolor glitz of those VH1 Classic 70s and 80s specials: there's strands of New Romantic, boogie, glam-rock, italo-disco, ska and synth-funk strewn liberally cross its tracklist, sometimes even within the same song. Of course that Palomo is far from being the only modern artist to play with vintage sub-genres of electronic music but his incisive imagination and psychedelic tendencies make the album sound anything but predictable. There are weird samples, impossibly funky basslines and layers of gilded synths at every turn, but all of it would be nothing without the confidence of Palomo's songwriting. Frequently resorting to a Prince-style falsetto, his vocals strike a perfect balance between melancholy and desire, while the lyrics are more pointed than usual. Highlights include the blissful reggae-pop of ''Annie'', the Balearic fever dream of ''Smut!'', the New Jack Swing-inspired ''Dear Skorpio Magazine'', and the queasy ''Street Level'', which features the record's most powerful, sublime chorus. I can't wait for his next one!… Expand
  7. All_ButTrU4
    Dec 5, 2022
    8
    Neon Indians indulgent double album is one of the best produced albums I've heard in years! Its a distinctive dynamic exercise in skill with sliding beats that crackling with a playfulness buzzing with imagination. He sounds alive an excited as he creates these versatile dancescapes. A tremendous leap forward and an enviable peak.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 17
  3. Negative: 0 out of 17
  1. Tiny Mix Tapes
    Nov 5, 2015
    60
    It’s a perfectly respectable, fun dance record, but I just wish its grooves came more naturally.
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  2. Austin Chronicle
    Nov 5, 2015
    67
    The 51-minute groove compilation emulates late-night VH1 on a heavy dose of synth and a sprinkle of Eighties pop.
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  3. Uncut
    Oct 27, 2015
    60
    The results are alluring warped but this groovy nostalgia is now a well-trodden path. [Dec 2015, p.76]
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