# Contra (album)
**Contra** is the second studio album by the American indie rock band [Vampire Weekend](https://www.edgepedia.org/vampire-weekend), released on [XL Recordings](https://www.edgepedia.org/xl-recordings) in January 2010.[1](https://shop.xlrecordings.com/release/347168-vampire-weekend-contra?lang=en_US) Produced by the band's keyboardist [Rostam Batmanglij](https://www.edgepedia.org/rostam-batmanglij), it followed the band's self-titled 2008 debut and reached number 1 on the Billboard charts with first-week US sales of 124,000 copies, an unusual result for an independent release.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/02/vampire-weekend-interview-modern-vampires)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Artist / album | Second album by Vampire Weekend, the New York band fronted by Ezra Koenig with Rostam Batmanglij, Chris Baio, and Chris Tomson[3](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Electronic-Musician/2010/Electronic-Musician-2010-02.pdf) |
| Release | XL Recordings, January 11, 2010[1](https://shop.xlrecordings.com/release/347168-vampire-weekend-contra?lang=en_US) |
| Title origin | Partly inspired by a 1980s platform game, not the Nicaraguan counter-revolutionaries[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/nov/11/vampire-weekend-new-album-videogame) |
| Production | Produced and engineered by band member Rostam Batmanglij[3](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Electronic-Musician/2010/Electronic-Musician-2010-02.pdf) |
| US performance | No. 1 on the Billboard charts; 124,000 copies sold in its first week[2](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/02/vampire-weekend-interview-modern-vampires) |
| UK performance | Peak position 3 on the Official Albums Chart, first chart date 23 January 2010, catalog number XLCD429[5](https://www.officialcharts.com/albums/vampire-weekend-contra/) |
| Critical reception | Metascore of 81 (universal acclaim) based on 39 critic reviews, 34 positive and 5 mixed[6](https://www.metacritic.com/music/contra/vampire-weekend/critic-reviews) |
## Title and cover
The band explained in November 2009 that the title Contra is partly inspired by a 1980s platform game rather than by the Nicaraguan counter-revolutionary fighters who share the name.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/nov/11/vampire-weekend-new-album-videogame) Critics also heard a nod to the Clash, whose fourth album *Sandinista!* was named after the Nicaraguan left-wingers opposed by the contras; the closing track "I Think Ur a Contra" takes its title from a Clash lyric, and Koenig rhymes "rock'n'roll" with "complete control", a Clash song.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jan/03/vampire-weekend-contra-cd-review) • [8](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-vampire-weekend-contra-xl-recordings-1863667.html)
The cover is a photo of a young woman wearing a white [Ralph Lauren](https://www.edgepedia.org/ralph-lauren) polo shirt.[17](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jul/16/vampire-weekend-model-sues-band) Rostam Batmanglij, the band's de-facto aesthetic director, said the image looks old but also seems like a rendering of some kind of future. [Ezra Koenig](https://www.edgepedia.org/ezra-koenig) said that if anyone had shown it to him as a possible album title and cover, he would have had a conniption, because it was everything he hated.[9](https://pitchfork.com/features/article/9125-vampire-weekend/)
## Recording
Songwriting continued from the release of the band's debut in January 2008. The band put in marathon studio sessions in Brooklyn over the summer, working 12 hours a day for six weeks, with XL Recordings' due date for the album falling the day before a Stereogum progress report in late 2009.[10](https://stereogum.com/93311/progress_report_vampire_weekend/interviews/progress-report) Batmanglij served as the band's producer and engineer.[3](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Electronic-Musician/2010/Electronic-Musician-2010-02.pdf) [Entertainment Weekly](https://www.edgepedia.org/entertainment-weekly)'s review describes the album as recorded in Brooklyn and Mexico City.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/music/contra/vampire-weekend/critic-reviews) Some songs had long gestations: "White Sky" began with a beat Batmanglij made on his computer in 2007, with the first tracking by the band in February.[11](https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2010/01/11/vampire-weekend-contra-interview/)
## Music and lyrics
Contra broadens the sound of the debut. Pitchfork's review, by [Mike Powell](https://www.edgepedia.org/mike-powell), describes a record full of eccentricities: Koenig's stretchy, dynamic voice, Batmanglij's colorful arrangements, and a sound spanning American synth-pop, reggae, ska, calypso, and Afropop.[12](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13807-contra/) The Guardian's Kitty Empire heard fewer guitars and a far richer soundbed, with Congolese thumb pianos redolent of Konono No 1 on "Horchata" and new appropriations including Puerto Rican reggaeton, Jamaican dancehall, and Californian ska-punk.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jan/03/vampire-weekend-contra-cd-review) The band called it their California album, although it was recorded in Brooklyn.[13](https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/music/the-culture-of-vampire-weekend-1.501931)
The ten-track album opens with "Horchata", in which Koenig rhymes "horchata" with "balaclava" over marimba-like arrangement, and closes with "Diplomat's Son" and "I Think Ur a Contra".[12](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13807-contra/) "Diplomat's Son", six minutes long, samples M.I.A. and features an 8-bit interpolation of [Toots and the Maytals](https://www.edgepedia.org/toots-and-the-maytals)' "Pressure Drop".[12](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13807-contra/) "California English" uses disorienting Auto-Tuned vocals.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jan/03/vampire-weekend-contra-cd-review)
Koenig, who writes all the lyrics, said that while the album has songs dealing with wealth and rich girls, he wanted a more nuanced approach than on the debut, whose treatment of privilege had drawn ferocious objections.[14](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jan/07/vampire-weekend-contra) Pitchfork read the lyrics as being about people struggling with their social status, with image important but not to be mistaken for superiority.[12](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13807-contra/)
## Commercial performance
Contra went to number 1 on the [Billboard charts](https://www.edgepedia.org/billboard-charts) and sold 124,000 copies in its first week, which the Guardian called an extraordinary achievement for an independent release.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/02/vampire-weekend-interview-modern-vampires) In the United Kingdom it peaked at number 3 on the Official Albums Chart, spending 16 consecutive weeks in the top 100 from 23 January to 8 May 2010 and returning to the chart in later 2010 and early 2011.[5](https://www.officialcharts.com/albums/vampire-weekend-contra/)
## Critical reception
The album received a Metascore of 81 on Metacritic, labeled universal acclaim, based on 39 critic reviews with 34 positive, 5 mixed, and 0 negative.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/music/contra/vampire-weekend/critic-reviews) Pitchfork scored it 8.6, saying the band embraced its eccentricities without shame or apology and that its stranger songs were more imaginative than anything on the debut.[12](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13807-contra/) [Robert Christgau](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-christgau), in MSN Consumer Guide, gave it 100, writing that the band celebrated "the world's contradictions, contraindications, and contradistinctions with a new pop sound made up of old pop sounds that aren't the same old pop sounds".[6](https://www.metacritic.com/music/contra/vampire-weekend/critic-reviews) The Guardian's review found the album as gem-like as its predecessor, if arguably less immediate, finding inventive new ways to do the same thing as before, the classic task of a second album.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jan/03/vampire-weekend-contra-cd-review) The Independent judged it exuberant enough to make a listener forget most qualms about the band's sincerity.[8](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-vampire-weekend-contra-xl-recordings-1863667.html)
## Place in the band's catalog
Contra is the second of three albums the band recorded in short succession after leaving Columbia University, followed by *Modern Vampires of the City* (2013). Batmanglij was the sole producer of the band's first two albums, pushing their sound from the heavier Afropop influence of the debut toward the experimentalism of Contra.[15](https://www.thefader.com/2013/03/05/vampire-weekend-upper-classmen) Later work has looked back on it: the Pitchfork review of *[Only God Was Above Us](https://www.edgepedia.org/only-god-was-above-us)* (2024) notes a keyboard part calling to mind Contra's "Holiday".[16](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/vampire-weekend-only-god-was-above-us/)
## References
1. [Contra – Vampire Weekend, XL Recordings shop](https://shop.xlrecordings.com/release/347168-vampire-weekend-contra?lang=en_US)
2. [Vampire Weekend: 'We have to make the best records possible', The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/02/vampire-weekend-interview-modern-vampires)
3. [Back for a Second Bite, Electronic Musician (February 2010)](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Electronic-Musician/2010/Electronic-Musician-2010-02.pdf)
4. [Vampire Weekend name new album after videogame, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/nov/11/vampire-weekend-new-album-videogame)
5. [CONTRA – VAMPIRE WEEKEND, Official Charts Company](https://www.officialcharts.com/albums/vampire-weekend-contra/)
6. [Critic Reviews for Contra – Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/music/contra/vampire-weekend/critic-reviews)
7. [Vampire Weekend: Contra review, The Guardian (Kitty Empire)](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jan/03/vampire-weekend-contra-cd-review)
8. [Album: Vampire Weekend, Contra (XL recordings), The Independent](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-vampire-weekend-contra-xl-recordings-1863667.html)
9. [Vampire Weekend, Pitchfork feature](https://pitchfork.com/features/article/9125-vampire-weekend/)
10. [Progress Report: Vampire Weekend, Stereogum](https://stereogum.com/93311/progress_report_vampire_weekend/interviews/progress-report)
11. [Metering Rhythm: Vampire Weekend, The Washington Post Express](https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2010/01/11/vampire-weekend-contra-interview/)
12. [Vampire Weekend: Contra Album Review, Pitchfork (Mike Powell)](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13807-contra/)
13. [The culture of Vampire Weekend, The National](https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/music/the-culture-of-vampire-weekend-1.501931)
14. [Vampire Weekend: 'They're attacking a version of us that doesn't exist', The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jan/07/vampire-weekend-contra)
15. [Vampire Weekend: Upper Classmen, The FADER](https://www.thefader.com/2013/03/05/vampire-weekend-upper-classmen)
16. [Vampire Weekend: Only God Was Above Us Album Review, Pitchfork](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/vampire-weekend-only-god-was-above-us/)
17. [Vampire Weekend Model Sues Band, theguardian.com](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jul/16/vampire-weekend-model-sues-band)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Albums and recorded releases › Studio albums › Indie and alternative albums › Studio albums of the 2010s*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license