Contra

Vampire Weekend's second album starts with "Horchata", ostensibly a punching bag for people who didn't like their first one. Singer Ezra Koenig rhymes "horchata" with "balaclava", while keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij arranges the song around the polite plinks of marimbas. It's a sweatless calypso, buttoned-up and breezy. So, of course, haters will still find plenty to hate about Contra, and they'll hate it with vigor. Meanwhile, Vampire Weekend sound like they've fallen in love with what they started and are hugging it tight without shame or apology.

When Vampire Weekend first appeared in 2006, they seemed to strike the same regenerative effect into the indie-rock circuit that fellow New Yorkers The Strokes had managed at the beginning of the new century.

For, with the simple act of imbuing their songs with some Afro-pop rhythms, Vampire Weekend pulled off the not inconsiderable trick of making music that sounded gloriously familiar and intriguingly different and fresh at the same time. Blo gs buzzed, indie-discos rocked and songs like A-Punk and M79 soon sounded like old friends.