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Mention the name Vampire Weekend, and all you might get are blank stares here in Singapore. In contrast, the band from New York City set blogs abuzz even before their self-titled debut album was released in 2008. They went on to sell nearly half a million copies of it and debuted on the Top 20 of both American and UK charts, according to MTV and αCharts.

Predictably, the band received some backlash for their instant popularity that most new bands can only dream about.

Critics questioned whether they could keep up their popularity or fade to oblivion as a one-album hit band, while detractors grouse about the band’s pretentious image.

In truth, the band is a walking contradiction. The group, in their mid-20s, made up of Ezra Koenig (vocals, guitar), Rostam Batmanglij (keyboards, guitar, vocals), Chris Baio (bass) and Christopher Tomson (drums) met in Columbia University, an Ivy League college. They look just like it too, with their cardigans and plaid shirts, living in a world of butlers and Louis Vuitton (if the lyrics in their debut album are anything to go by). Yet, they’re dabbling in West African rhythms.

Defying cynics, Vampire Weekend have produced yet another great album. Besides, who can call them pretentious anymore when they openly admit their sophomore album, Contra is actually named after a video game?

For those unfamiliar with the band that named itself after a movie that Koeing made over the summer vacation in his freshman year of college, Vampire Weekend’s sound is probably unlike anything you’ve heard before. They fuse Afro-pop with Western Rock, which they dub “Upper West Side Soweto”. A term previously only associated with Paul Simon, most famous for being one half of Simon and Garfunkel, whose music was influenced by world music.

Lyrics-wise, Contra has matured since their debut album. This time, the band bemoans the state of society, internationally and locally to a joyous beat, dropping college life from one of its themes. However, the lyrics never get too heavy going and retain brightness in their melody like the first album.

But then again, the lyrics are still as opaque as ever. For instance, in their single, “Cousins”, the first stanza goes, “You found a sweater on the ocean floor / They’re gonna find it if you didn’t close the door / You and the smart one sit outside to the side / in a house on a street they wouldn’t park on at night”.

This is also partly due to Koenig’s love for obscure word play. The frontman who taught High School English for a year after graduation, rhymes the title of their first song “Horchata” (a Spanish beverage) with Aranciata (an orange flavoured soft drink), balaclava (a form of headgear that resembles a ski mask) and Masada (a site of ruins originally built by Herod the Great).

They’ve also have toned down the brand name-dropping a notch this time, (perhaps due to the backlash?) sticking to more subtle hints like going on ski trips, aristocrats, and having a friend who’s a diplomat’s son.

Thankfully for their listeners, most of whom may not be able to make head or tail of the lyrics, their songs are fabulously unique and exotic sounding. On top of Afro-pop, this second album borrows sounds from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and California Ska-punk, and actually sounds more exciting than the debut album.

“White Sky” and “Run” make use of stereo sound, reverberating from your left ear to right to dizzying perfection, and showcases Koenig’s stretchy, malleable voice.

“Holiday”, “Cousins” and “Giving Up the Gun” are surprisingly infectious tunes that lean more towards pop inclinations. Die-hard indie fans might disparage this, but the mainstream audience, probably the ones these are written for, will lap it up.

“California English”, which describes the disparity between the rich and the poor, using contrasting lines like “someone took a trip before you came to ski in the Alps” and “no one sits inside a freezing flat and stays there ’til May” 2 stanzas down, without getting overtly angsty, unlike punk rock bands like Green Day. However, the synthetic voice effect that lends itself to make this piece the most unconventional of the lot is used a tad too much here.

While there’s no unanimous decision as to which track is the best, “Diplomat’s Son” is a quick favourite. The chants of what sounds vaguely like “chachalaca” and Koenig’s hauntingly hypnotic vocals, eccentric music arrangements somehow work when juxtaposed together.

2 songs that stood out for their slower tempo, “Taxi Cab” and “I Think UR A Contra” show the softer side and emotional depth of the band. Especially so for the latter that uses what appears to be an acoustic guitar in the background, which is unheard of for Vampire Weekend.

All in all, if you happen to be tired of the same old songs on your play list, Contra is a nice addition to spice it up, but even if you aren’t, it’s still worth the listen.

Title: Contra
Artiste: Vampire Weekend
Language: English
Record Label: XL
Release Date: Jan 12

Tracklist:
1. Horchata
2. White Sky
3. Holiday
4. California English
5. Taxi Cab
6. Run
7. Cousins
8. Giving Up the Gun
9. Diplomat’s Son
10. I Think UR A Contra

If you’ve ever wondered what’s behind your friends’ “It’s Complicated” relationship status on Facebook profiles, this film might be a good gauge – but only if those friends are your parents’ age.

Nancy Meyers directs It’s Complicated, which has garnered her a nomination for Best Screenplay and Best Motion Picture in the Golden Globes. The romantic comedy veteran also directed What Women Want and Something’s Gotta Give, which shows us her ability in delving into the love life of women older than those you’d expect playing the lead in Hollywood.

You could say she’s chasing after the silver dollar, seldom served by most of the Hollywood fare, but Meyers knows just what her audience wants, or at least dreams of. It’s Complicated is escapism for the middle-aged woman at its best. It’s any divorcee’s 2-pronged fantasy – getting back at the ex and finding love again.

That doesn’t mean audiences in their 20s won’t enjoy this laugh out loud comedy though.

Meryl Streep plays Jane Adler, a self-reliant divorcee, who leads a Martha Steward-esque lifestyle. She lives in a dream house in picturesque Santa Barbara, runs a successful bakery, and also has supportive friends, a tight-knit family and an ideal son-in-law to-be.

Along comes her ex-husband Jake (Alec Baldwin), who has remarried to a younger woman, yet is smitten by what Jane has blossomed into since the divorce. During their son’s graduation, they hook up after a drunken night out and old flames are fanned. But to complicate matters, Jane is also seeing Adam (Steve Martin), an architect hired to remodel her house.

Not surprisingly, Streep, who holds the record for both Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in the Comedy or Musical category in the 67^th Golden Globes for her role here. She only lost the award to her own performance in Julie & Julia. As usual, she does a fantastic job. As the confused divorcee, on the cusp of starting/restarting a relationship, she’s natural and a delight to watch as she convincingly teeters between her 2 suitors. It’s just 1 suitor less than what she had in 2008’s Mamma Mia! One can understand why she’s one of the few actresses in Hollywood who, even at her age, plays the lead, and gets the devilishly handsome man despite her less than stunning face.

Any doubt that the 50-something-year-old cast won’t appeal to younger people was quelled by the sight of the cinema filled with 20-somethings, responding to the jokes with easy laughter. Who wouldn’t? The dialogue is funny and entertaining – for instance, Jake tells Jane “I’ve got 3 grown kids and I’m going to kindergarten interviews, I’m a walking cliché” – something people of any age group will enjoy.

Younger audiences can also look out for John Krasinski. The actor, most well known for his role as Jim Halpert in The Office, a television mockumentary series, manages to inject comic relief, despite being cast as one of the secondary characters. In fact, as the oldest Alder daughter’s fiancé, the ‘outsider’ looking into the family drama supplies some of the better laughs in the film, mostly due to his amusing facial expressions.

Central to the film is the idea that you can have fun at any season of life, and the oldies’ idea of fun is surprisingly similar to ours. Jane, Jake and Adam, all well in their 50s get away with acting like teenagers – they appear at parties high on pot (marijuana) and fall in and out of relationships. In contrast, their children (for the most part) are completely independent and behave more mature than their own parents. While an older audience might associate this with reliving their youth, younger audiences will find this fairly ridiculous.

The real issue here though, is that you fail to sympathise with the right characters. Jake is an amusingly charming but obnoxious jerk of an ex who prances back into Jane’s life expecting eager arms. This is fine, except Adam’s nice guy architect, the one you should be rooting for, never gets fleshed out properly. He’s all smiles and sensitivity, but not much more than that. As a result, he remains 2 dimensional and uninteresting, and there’s minimal emotional investment in him all the way to the end of the film.

The same goes for the 3 Adler children and Jane’s friends who only have brief appearances, and are conveniently ushered to the background so the affair can develop. Her friends don’t serve any other purpose in the film either, beyond serving as an outlet for Jane to share her confusion about her state of affairs.

All in all, watch It’s Complicated as a date movie, or simply for entertainment, but don’t expect anything deeper than that or you’ll be in for disappointment.

Release Details:

Opens: Jan 14
Duration: 120 min
Language: English
Rating: NC16
Genre: Comedy/Romance
Director: Nancy Meyers
Cast: Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, John Krasinski

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You’ve heard about Avatar’s mind-boggling cost, at an approximate US$400 million ($557 million). Watching it, you’ll marvel how every cent went into making this spectacular feast for the eyes.

James Cameron, director of Titanic, the highest grossing movie of all time at over US$600 million according to IMDB after 12 years, orchestrates yet another ambitious blockbuster Avatar. With the amount of buzz surrounding it, you half expect it to fall short, but it does the very opposite.

Audible intakes of breath can be heard regularly in the cinema, as wonder after wonder was revealed on screen. To think none of these exist in the real world – that everything was conceived, designed and rendered painstakingly in a studio somewhere in Hollywood truly blows your mind – and this was viewed in a 2D cinema.

The film is set in the year 2154, on Pandora, the apparently savage planet rich in a fossil fuel that the human mining colony is keen to harvest. One thing stands in their way: the natives, the jungle dwelling folk called the Na’vi. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic ex-Marine is tasked to take the place of his dead twin brother in the Avatar programme, to make contact with the indigenous people using a remotely controlled avatar of one of their own kind, in a last attempt at diplomacy. If this fails, the community will have to be exterminated so they can extract the costly mineral.

There are obvious themes here of how indigenous people are threatened by colonialists and conservation. The Na’vi have obvious similarities to the Native Americans, in their culture, their oneness with nature and their belief in Eywa, their version of Gaia. Thankfully, these politically correct themes don’t suffocate the story by becoming preachy, but aid its telling comfortably.

The plot is uncomplicated, the premise having been worn thin by previous films – think The Last Samurai and Disney’s Pocahontas – and becomes predictable at many points. For instance, it’s hardly a spoiler to say Jake meets the Na’vi princess, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and slowly but surely falls in love with her. However, the characters, which have an entirely new language created for them, have emotional depth and are as believable as walking trees, elves and hobbits from Lord of the Rings, which also used Weta’s technology.

From the start to the end, the film draws you in, thanks to superb execution, and its lengthy 161 minutes flit by all too soon.

Amazingly, despite Pandora’s other-worldliness, the alien world looks convincing. The vegetation looks something like what the Amazon Rainforest might look like if transplanted on another planet. Watching it, one regains the awe of a child, discovering the world anew, except this time it isn’t our world. By day, there’re sprawling landscapes, majestic waterfalls, floating mountains and fantastical beasts. By night, everything takes on a neon quality, as though someone turned on ultraviolet lights.

Avatar also manages to mix live action with animation credibly, so that it neither looks cartoonish nor awkward, and fixes the ‘dead eyes’ issue that motion capture films like The Polar Express have. In contrast, the Na’vi’s large wide set eyes convey real emotion, thanks to a video camera attached to the actors’ heads that captured their every subtle expression and the stellar performance by the cast.

Most notable among the unseen cast was science fiction genre’s latest darling Zoe Saldana. Recently seen in Star Trek (2009), her feline grace, animalistic wrath (when called for) and stirring performance, made you feel for her lead character. Another standout, to no one’s surprise, was Sigourney Weaver, who plays the lead scientist on Pandora. Weaver, who worked closely with director James Cameron on his Aliens series, effortlessly juggles the dual traits of the anal-retentive Dr. Grace Augustine and her caring and nurturing nature towards her team of scientists and the Na’vi.

As with James Cameron’s previous gun toting films such as the Terminator trilogy and Aliens, any weapon-obsessed junkie will appreciate the amount of guns, robots, bombs, and helicopters that the film is endowed with. For the rest of us, the climatic final battle sequence is eye-poppingly epic and exceptionally portrayed, that will interestingly have you rooting, not for the big blue planet, but for the blue people.

Release Details:
Opens: Dec 17
Duration: 161 min
Language: English
Rating: PG
Genre: Action/Adventure
Director: James Cameron
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox

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At a time when melancholic music in the style of Dashboard Confessional and Death Cab for Cutie is popular, We The Kings’ unabashedly cheerful music brings some sunlight to dreary grey skies.

The group from Bradenton, Florida are best known for their previous single “Check Yes Juliet”, which peaked at 37 in U.S. Billboard Pop 100 charts in 2008.

The band members, Travis Clark who provides the lead vocals and plays the guitar, Hunter Thomsen on the guitar and backing vocals, Drew Thomsen on the bass and Danny Duncan who does the drums, go way back. They originally started as a high school band, and began touring when in college. However, the annals of history tell us they really met at Martha B. King Middle School (Middle School is typically for between 11- to 14-year-olds), which provides the inspiration behind band’s name.

Compared to their self-titled debut album – this sophomore effort, Smile Kid, delivers another catchy, foot-tapping album. Unfortunately, the lyrics lack depth, revolving mainly around the themes of love, girls, with the occasional ode to their hometown.

The music is energetic, and beats are infectiously upbeat, which will translate into live performances nicely. This time, however, the long-haired boys dabble in a bit of electric with the synthesizer, which does the delicate balancing act of making their music more interesting, yet staying faithful to their pop-rock roots.

Smile Kid supplies some notable tracks that fans will enjoy. The album opens promisingly with “She Takes Me High”, “Promise The Stars” and “Heaven Can Wait” with its many hooks, positive lyrics about the depths of love and the typical WTK’s high-powered chorus that will make you bop to the music.

You’ve probably heard their latest single, “Heaven Can Wait” on the radio. While their music video doesn’t quite make sense, the concept of a Dog Show is quirky nonetheless and produces some chuckles.

Unfortunately, the album loses momentum towards the middle with “Rain Falls Down” and “Spin”, which are less than memorable, compared to the other tracks and feel overly long at 4:30 minutes and 4 minutes respectively.

Their seventh track in this album stands out with its progressive story-line type lyrics. Synthesized music is used to good effect in “In-N-Out”, which makes this number sound kooky and fun.

Once again, you can’t escape the group’s love for their hometown, although the references are less direct, unlike “This is Our Town” from their debut album. “Anna Maria” is probably named after the island just off the coast of Bradenton, while “Summer Love” is reminiscent of balmy summer days, freshly-cut grass and afternoons spent at the beach – doesn’t that remind you of the ever-sunny state of Florida? However, both songs lack that something to make them stand out.

Disney girl, Demi Lovato joins the boys in the sweet and wistful, “We’ll Be a Dream” in this ballad that’s perfect for the hopeless romantic in you. The song is well suited to be a duet and has a lovely melody as well as a euphoric chorus. Demi’s strong vocals complement the band well, although there are instances where she overpowers them.

If you purchase the deluxe edition from iTunes, it includes 2 bonus tracks, the acoustic versions of “Heaven Can Wait” and “She Takes Me High”. They are a much welcome addition, as there’s more emphasis on the frontman, Travis Clark’s vocals, which are pleasing to the ear.

Overall, We The Kings know their what they’re good at – catchy melodies and hooks, but don’t rock the boat too much by embarking into more adventurous waters.

Smile Kid provides plenty of fun, infectious tunes, which will definitely please their teenage fans. Most tunes grow on you, although tracks are best played in shuffled mode, otherwise you’re warned against having them played altogether or on repeat, especially if you are not a huge fan of pop music. This can be overwhelming. Ultimately though, to the discerning ear, the album leaves something wanting.

Title: Smile Kid
Artiste: We The Kings
Language: English
Record Label: S-Curve Records
Release Date: Dec 8 2009

Track list:

1. She Takes Me High
2. Promise The Stars
3. Heaven Can Wait
4. The Story Of Your Life
5. Rain Falls Down
6. Summer Love
7. In-N-Out (Animal Style)
8. Spin
9. Anna Maria (All We Need)
10. We’ll Be A Dream (feat. Demi Lovato)
11. What You Do To Me

Bonus Tracks:

Heaven Can Wait (Acoustic)
She Takes Me High (Acoustic)

As the first hand-drawn 2D Disney animation after a drought of 5 years, The Princess and The Frog certainly exceeds expectations. After classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, The Little Mermaid and many more, the world grieved a little when Disney announced that Home on the Range was its last 2D animation in 2004.

Ron Clements and John Musker, most famously known for directing The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, bring you this jazzy little gem.

Everyone knows the story of the frog prince, from the famous Grimm Brothers tale – the frog is really a prince under a magic spell, frog meets princess, princess kisses frog, spell gets broken, and prince and princess live happily ever after. You could say it’s the basic formula that Beauty and the Beast and even Shrek derive their plots from.

However, Disney’s The Princess and The Frog gives a fresh twist to the story. Who knows if President Obama has anything to do with it, but it seems awfully overdue that this is Disney’s first African-American heroine, joining the court of largely white (Snow White, Aurora, Cinderella, Ariel, Belle), Native American (Pocahontas), Arabian (Jasmine) and Chinese (Mulan) heroines. To add more excitement to our over-exposed viewers, the prince ends up kissing the wrong girl, turning her into a frog as well, due to an unfortunate mix-up.

Anika Noni Rose of the Dreamgirls voices Walt Disney Studio’s first African American princess, Tiana, a working class waitress who aspires to open her own restaurant to fulfil her father’s dream. Meanwhile, Bruno Campos lends his rich baritone to the role of Prince Naveen, who was turned into a frog by voodoo doctor, Dr Facilier (Keith David). The 2 charming amphibians go on an adventure through the bayou (marshes that Louisiana is famous for) in search of a way to break the curse. Along the way they meet an assortment of amusing characters, including Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley) the jazz trumpet playing alligator, and Ray (Jim Cummings) the lovesick Cajun firefly.

The film is set in the beautifully illustrated New Orleans of the 1920s, but you don’t have to know the history of the birthplace of jazz music to appreciate its rich culture, which is a huge influence to the story. Besides the music and the bayou, The Mardi Gras, a carnival of grand proportions that New Orleans is renowned for, gumbo, a stew usually made of either chicken or seafood originating from Louisiana, and the great Mississippi River all make appearances too.

The music is similarly inspired by the era, with a very bluesy and jazzy vibe by composer Randy Newman of Cars and Toy Story fame. “Almost There”, which illustrates Tiana’s ambitions of turning an old mill into her own restaurant, and “Friends from the Other Side”, where Dr Facilier summons spirits to perform his black magic, are some notable numbers that this outing boasts. These are accompanied by breathtaking animations. However, take note if watching with little ones, as the otherworldly spirits might scare them.

For those who grew up with the Disney fairytales as their staple, this trip down memory lane is one you’ll surely enjoy. Pay attention, and you might even spot some references (intentional or otherwise) to classics such as Pinocchio, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid and The Jungle Book.

However, The Princess and The Frog is not without its share of drawbacks, most significantly the clichés that abound in its 97-minute runtime, like ditzy blondes and the egoistical but charming prince, just to name a few.

While the backbone of the story also falls in line with previous films, it takes the ethos, anything can happen if you just believe, and attempts to reinvent it for today’s jaded world. As Tiana’s daddy tells his young daughter, “That evening star can only take you part of the way, … never lose sight of what is really important”. The ending also seems a tad too neat to be realistic. Additionally, one would have appreciated it if the ‘white’ characters were not all portrayed as either dumb or ditzy.

However, if you’re willing to look beyond the clichés, you’ll find The Princess and The Frog to be a wonderfully heart-warming tale in the league of its predecessors, with the good possibility of becoming one of the classics that you’ll want to watch again and again.

Release Details:

Opens: Dec 10
Duration: 97 min
Language: English
Rating: PG
Genre: Animated Comedy Adventure/Musical
Director: Ron Clements, John Musker
Cast: Anika Noni Rose, Terrence Howard, John Goodman, Keith David, Jim Cummings, Jenifer Lewis, Oprah Winfrey
Distributed by: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Authors and poets from Australia converged in Singapore for New Australian Writing; a panel that featured fresh faces of the Aussie publishing world at The Arts House, for the Singapore Writers Festival on Oct 24, which was peppered with writers’ tips and insights from their journey to getting published.

The journey was no smooth ride. Kate McCaffrey said, “In Australia, you have more chances of making the Olympic team, than… getting a book published.”

The Aussie Writers, from left to right, Omar Musa, Maree Dawes, Chris Pash and Kate McCaffery

Embrace your life experiences

Life experiences are good sources of inspiration for authors, so embrace them.

Omar Musa, a poet and rapper, who, while coming into contact with the impoverished conditions where Aborginals live, realised “that as artists, sometimes …you have to speak up, and you have to be political, and there are some things that just can’t be ignored.” Now he also writes, among other issues, about racial inequality in Australia. Such an example is the rap “Open Your Eyes”, which discusses stereotypes he encounters, such as airline staff thinking he is a threat because of his “Arabic sounding” name.

Similarly, Chris Pash, the author of The Last Whale, was introduced to the world of whaling at 19 as a rookie reporter at the Albany Advertiser. He later decided to return some 30 years later to chronicle the story of both whalers and activists. He explained that while “whaling stopped, … I felt some sort of obligation somehow, to have a conscious representative of the last whalers.”

Get inspired

Keep on the lookout for ideas everywhere. Kate McCaffery found her initial spark of inspiration through the TV programme Dr Phil, which features the celebrity psychologist as host of his own show, giving advice on a range of topics. They were talking to a girl who had been abused by text messaging and blog and email. Her interest was sparked off on how despite new technology and changing times, the act of bullying had not changed. The notes she took while watching the talk show eventually grew to become her first novel, Destroying Avalon.

Have a muse, and the researching and refining part of writing becomes less of a drag. The importance of this comes as writing a novel or collection of poems isn’t without its complications, and having a passion in your subject will certainly help the process.

Maree Dawes, who penned a collection of poetry called Women of Minotaur about wives and mistresses of Picasso, is such an example. She explained that while she started out penning a poem, fascination for the subject soon grew in her. She became intrigued by Broadway pieces and articles about the women’s lives in the 1800s and 1900s, learnt how Picasso painted, and even familiarised herself with crimes committed in that era.

Above all, persevere

However, good ideas alone aren’t enough to bring a book to completion. Many people give-up halfway, but with the goal in mind, you’ve got to press on. For instance, despite having a full-time job, Chris Pash would squeeze precious time to put his thoughts on paper while having dinner and before going to bed. Time doesn’t free itself up.

Omar Musa gave possibly the most important word of advice for aspiring authors.

As a rapper, he often writes his lyrics on the spot at the studio. However, he’s quick to make the distinction that it’s not just raw talent that allows him to write. To him, this is a common mistake that writers make, thinking they can “wait for the great moment, where they can save up all their ideas and write a masterpiece, without actually practising”. Instead, doing it frequently, which he likens to “push-ups”, is all-important to become a good writer.

He said, “a writer writes. You don’t wait … just constantly write. I always do sometime where I just write songs, and I never release these songs, but this is just so I can keep my game at top level”.