In SPIN Magazine’s extensive cover article on the band published in February of 2008, Vampire Weekend keyboardist Rostram Batmanglij sets himself squarely in the role of the difficult musician. Writes SPIN scribe Andy Greenwald, “Batmanglij is friendly but reticent. Questions are often met with stony silence or one-word replies.”
Something about that troubled me – as much as any show of unfounded rock star ego does. But mostly because Batmanglij and his bandmates have been foisted into this position of power so early in their careers, allowing them after the release of one album to not only treat interviewers with what sounds like a fair bit of high minded disdain, but also allowing them to shove half-baked projects like this under the noses of an unsuspecting public.
For Discovery, Batmanglij pairs up with Ra Ra Riot’s Wesley Miles to play their own version of modern R&B, replete with Auto-Tuned vocals, programmed beats with slaps in the place of snares, and plenty of tinny high end. The band got a small boost of interest recently with the unfortunate death of Michael Jackson and their debut’s featured cover version of The Jackson 5 classic, “I Want You Back.” Barring that, LP has been treated as you might expect it to be, as a mere trifle that is fun for drunken dance parties but little else.
Granted, it seems like that is the duo’s intention with this album. The tracks on this album feel like the result of a few afternoons sitting in a pot smoke filled apartment, after a long night of listening to Ne-Yo and T-Pain mp3s. It has a light, tossed together feeling, aimed simply to amuse its creators more than anything else. There’s hardly anything wrong with that notion, but it doesn’t feel like this collection is necessarily fit for mass consumption.
In spite of it all, some of this tracks work rather well under the circumstances. The slow shimmy of “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” is entirely redeemed by the sultry vocals of Angel Deradoorian, and the spare “It’s Not My Fault (It’s My Fault)” features a inventive backing track of a single robotic clap, some fast forwarding video game noises and what sounds like a few sets of windchimes jangling together.
I fear, though, that this album would not have seen the light of day had it not been for the cultural credit that both Batamanglij and Miles are audibly cashing in with this project. Put the names of two unknowns under the same moniker and this likely would have languished on a tiny label before being relegated to the cut out bin. Now, it will have to wait at least a year longer before the same fate befalls it.
