Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend is the debut studio album by American rock band Vampire Weekend, released on 29 January 2008 by XL Recordings. The album was produced by band member Rostam Batmanglij, with mixing assistance from Jeff Curtin and Shane Stoneback. Released after a year of building internet buzz, the album showcased the band’s distinctive blend of indie pop, chamber music, and Afropop influences.

In the United States, the album debuted at number 17 on the Billboard 200. In its 11th week on the UK chart, it peaked at number 15, and it also reached number 37 in Australia. The album was supported by the singles “Mansard Roof,” “A-Punk,” “Oxford Comma,” “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” and “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance.”

The album was highly acclaimed, being ranked as the 5th-best album of 2008 by Time, the 56th-best album of the decade by Rolling Stone, and 51st on Pitchfork’s list of the Top 200 Albums of the 2000s. In 2012, Rolling Stone placed it at number 430 on its list of “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”

The recording process took place in various settings, including a basement, a barn, the apartments of two band members, and Tree Fort studio in Brooklyn. These diverse locations influenced the album’s sound, with sessions in the barn resulting in notably echoey drums. The album draws from African pop styles such as soukous and Congolese rumba, incorporating string textures and harpsichords. The band humorously referred to their style as “Upper West Side Soweto.”

In October 2007, lead singer Ezra Koenig mentioned that the band had been working on some of the tracks for a long time, aiming to finalise and remix them. He expressed excitement about two songs, “I Stand Corrected” and “M79,” which were recorded around September 2007.

The album’s cover features a Polaroid picture of the chandelier in St. Anthony Hall, a Columbia University semi-secret society, taken during one of the band’s early shows at Columbia.

In its first week, the album sold over 27,000 copies, debuting at number 17 on the Billboard 200. By 20 January 2010, it had sold nearly half a million copies. It received universal acclaim from critics, achieving a Metacritic score of 82 out of 100.

Notable reviews praised its originality and charm. AllMusic highlighted the band’s meticulous and vivid world, while The A.V. Club commended its compactness. Blender recognised the smart weaving of global influences, and The Guardian appreciated the band’s balance of originality and pop sensibility. NME and Pitchfork both noted the refreshing and accessible nature of the album.

The album’s tracks have featured in various media, with “Campus” appearing in Gossip Girl and I Love You, Man, “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” in Viper Club and a trailer for The Big Sick, “Mansard Roof” in Grey’s Anatomy and Someone Great, and “Oxford Comma” in The Chair, Roswell, New Mexico, New Girl, Suits, How I Met Your Mother, and I Love You, Man. “A-Punk” was used in the 2008 film Step Brothers and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.