Vampire Weekend: Contra

After dipping into Vampire Weekend a few weeks ago, I decided today was the day to explore their second album, "Contra."  I think that "Contra" is a more polished effort than Vampire Weekend's debut disc.  They cleaned up their song writing a bit and sound more professional the second time around.  To me, it is apparent that Ezra Koenig spent some time working on refining his vocals.  His voice voice doesn't break this time and he has a smoother delivery.  The band stuck to making songs with an Afro beat that sound similar to their debut.  The big thing missing on this album is an upbeat song akin to "A-Punk."  Most of the songs are slow or mid-tempo.  My two standout tracks are "Run" and "Diplomat's Son."  "Run" might be the most upbeat track and I like the horns.  "Diplomat's Son" is the biggest step forward from the debut.  I guess I didn't really get "I think Ur A Contra."  It was a ballad with nothing to identify it as Vampire Weekend besides Ezra Koenig's voice.  Overall I liked the album, just not as much as their debut.  I guess I was looking for more of a step forward as opposed to more of the same.