You ain't nothin' in music these days if you don't have a side project on the go - a fact that Rostam Batmanglij (keyboardist and producer of Vampire Weekend) and Wes Miles (lead singer and guitarist of Ra Ra Riot) are well aware of. The duo, friends since before their respective bands made it big, have temporarily side-stepped their day jobs to indulge their respective inner space-pop geeks.
LP is an odd little album. Bulked up with AutoTune and studio wizardry, these songs hang off experimental rhythm patterns and showy synth riffs, at best sounding like a student of Kanye West, and at worst, comparable to talent fraudster Akon. The pair seem to indulge their inner R. Kellys with the crunky, sleazy, synth-drenched hip-hop of 'Orange Shirt' ("I promise to leave before your mother wakes up in the morning") and let ideas flap manically on the likes of the schizophrenic (but brilliant) 'So Insane'.
Elsewhere, Batmanglij's bandmate Ezra Koenig and Angel Deradoorian, vocal contributor to Dirty Projectors, also make muted guest appearances on 'Carby' and 'I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend' respectively, but neither seem to really connect. Similarly, a cover of The Jackson 5's 'I Want You Back' takes the original on a experimental space journey, but leaves the listener baffled as to what the point is.
As a idea-letting exercise, LP is an interesting enough endeavour - but the phrase 'don't give up the day job' has never sounded more imperative.
