TO SEE THE DAWN

IS CAPE COD KWASSA KWASSA THE SONG OF THE DECADE?

(i wish i could say WHITE SKY up there but as it hasn't been officially released my hands are tied.)

when some people talk about vampire weekend it is difficult for them to just distill everything and talk about the jams. for some people it is difficult to separate their music from their roots or their inspirations or their alleged "cultural imperialism" (lol); for me personally it is sometimes difficult to separate the fact that i love their music from the fact that their frontman LOOKS LIKE THIS. but that is a story for another time.

now i am going to just talk about the jams. the point we have to make here is that no one did what vampire weekend did with cape cod kwassa kwassa. don't get all technical on me about paul simon because he didn't work in the clever lyrics about sex and massachusetts. what this song gets across better than DARE I SAY any other song on the subject (doin' it) is the incredibly accurate AWKWARDNESS. down to the voice crack in "is your bed maaAAAaade?" i remember reading an article on one of my favorite music blogs about c.c.k.k. in december 2007 about how that break section with all the cooing and gentle bass was the love scene of the song, ie. all those awkward questions ("is your sweater ooooOOOon??") worked. how lovely is it to think about it that way? a story and a song in one little package. in its incredible simplicity it is smart and clean and perfect.


what about this, guys? a.o.t.d?

there is no doubt that for me this would rank up high, simply because it changed a lot of things about me as a music listener - what i listen to and what i hear and what i see. and certainly seeing them eight times says something about the ridiculous level of my devotion. this album is solid, to say the least. it always hits me how simple and triumphant mansard roof is.

in terms of hottest hotties of the decade, TAKE A LOOK AT THIS PICTURE and tell me you don't wish you were lying on the floor in some corner flipping through one of their history textbooks waiting for this photoshoot to be done so you could talk about the cultural significance of madras plaid and listen to jay-z.