This week, Vampire Weekend released the first video off their forthcoming album Contra, due out on Jan 12th. The video is for Cousins, a bouncy punk track that’s corresponding visual, shot completely on shaky rails, is fittingly jumpy. The video features one street morphing through minute changes while band members — keeping with abstract video tradition — punctuate lyrics with smart and funny arthouse props and jump-cut body mods. After a single view, there’s at least one stunning visual trick that smacks of MTV’s best 80s experimentalism (you’ll know it when you see it).
With tight, urban compositions that sample a myriad of global musical languages, all while maintaining a sharp sense of humor — especially in their videos — VW are modern heirs to the Talking Heads, shouldering preppy-art-rock into the aught-tens. But don’t take my word for it — ask David Byrne.
Enjoy :-)
Zachary Dinerstein 
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