It’s been two years since Vampire Weekend hit the scene with its brand of feel-good, calypso-inspired indie rock.  With its latest album release, “Contra,” Vampire Weekend has established itself to be without a doubt a solid band.

“Contra” bends the indie rock genre, under which Vampire Weekend falls as much as the Clash did back in the early ’80s.  The multiplicity of genres in “Contra” makes it a bold follow-up from the 2008 debut. This time around, the band took the risk of making a less accessible, yet more diverse, album.  

The album clocks in at 36 minutes, making it a brief, yet compact and tight, collection. The first track “Horchata’s” lyrics ­— focused on an exotic mixed drink — is textbook Vampire Weekend circa 2008, but when the song hits an electronic interlude, it’s apparent this album is of a different breed.    

The track “Holiday” is obviously a two minute filler song, with simple, fluffy lyrics. Though these light tracks are enjoyable, the album’s more ballad-esque songs carry the real weight. The final song on the LP  “I Think Ur a Contra,” is the most genuine song in the band’s entire repertoire. It has a lot of raw emotion that makes it one of the few tracks with a refreshing complexity to  it.  

“Contra” is not a perfect album, but it deviates and evolves enough from the band’s previous release to make it a more complex and proressive collection of music from the group. It proves that the band didn’t just get lucky in 2008 with its first hit album and that its members have got some great songwriting chops. With the evolution of their songwriting in this album, they have achieved enough musical staying power to stave off the inevitable, shallow hipster criticism.