Filmed when Vampire Weekend were putting the final touches to latest album Contra, Unplugged features the group working through a handful of songs from the record (White Sky, Run, Cousins), plus some of their best-known hits. Backed by a six-piece strings-and-woodwind ensemble, the bursting guitars and drums of Cousins are given added urgency. Oxford Comma now builds to a chamber-pop crescendo, while A-Punk floats atop a bed of flutes. Yep, for a band best known for their electric influences, Vampire Weekend seem surprisingly at home in the Unplugged world.
