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Vampire Weekend Turn British Radio Pop Into Vampire Weekend

As has been pointed out elsewhere, “Fight for This Love†— the mawkish techno-pop ballad from X Factor judge Cheryl Cole that tore up the charts in Britain last year and has just been covered by Vampire Weekend for BBC Radio — is one of a bunch of U.K. pop tracks Ezra Koenig highlighted in Rolling Stone for one of those “my favorite [blank]†lists. (Also doing it for Koenig: Yolanda Be Cool, Scooter, Katy B, the Sugababes, “Put a Donk on It.â€) It’s the kind of thing that probably drives the traditional Vampire Weekend hater crazy: Taken from that curmudgeonly angle, it’s Koenig associating himself with not just lowbrow radio jams, but mystique-having international lowbrow radio jams to calculatingly deflate his band’s snooty reputation. If you’re not the kind of person who considers the Lil Jon reference on “Oxford Comma†a particularly low point in this decade’s pop-culture annals, though, it’s just a guy being earnestly informed and enthusiastic about some fun music, and it’s pretty winning. Also helpful: Vampire Weekend’s take on “Fight for This Love†swabs on a jittery guitar line and big horns, dials down the vocal histrionics, and just generally acquits itself in a manner befitting the long, glorious shadow of the original. It could have only come from a true believer.

Vampire Weekend Turn British Radio Pop Into Vampire Weekend