Discovery is the collaboration between Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend and Wes Miles from Ra Ra Riot. Â Their debut, LP, has been much blogged and bitched about over the past few weeks. Â To be simplistic, most of the criticism goes something like this: white kids shouldn’t play R&B OR this isn’t indie rock because pop music is our enemy. Â Batmanglij’s Vampire Weekend membership surely only exacerbates people’s impression of him as a cultural carpetbagger. Â But these complaints (and even some of the praise that paints the album as mindless fun) feel like conservative bullshit coming from a community that prides itself on originality. Â LP, like Vampire Weekend’s debut, exhilarates because it takes a fairly straightforward genre (in this case contemporary R&B/pop), wraps it in warm, shiny sounds and then propels itself along with unexpected structural twists. The album opens on a fantastic five song run culminating in album highlight ‘So Insane.’ ‘Orange Shirt’ establishes the group’s sound at the top: round, inviting synthesizers and beats, spiked with trilling runs, as the bed for processed singing about the dewy first moments of love. Â The next two tracks provide the only moments truly reminiscent of the band’s Vampire Weekend roots. ‘Osaka Loop Line’ is Timbaland’s strobing ‘Ride My Pony’ production in the service of Ezra Koenig’s songwriting (he co-wrote this track) and on ‘Can You Discover’ Batmanglij’s familiar keyboards give buoyancy to the angelic and melancholy courtship of the vocals. Â Discovery is best at its weirdest and ‘So Insane,’ with its nervous, stuttering verses that melt into a woozy, lovesick chorus, is the culmination of the group’s aesthetic. Â It sounds like falling in love. You can almost hear Discovery run out of ideas on their cover of ‘I Want You Back,’ which ham-handedly applies the band’s gauzy sound to the original and in the process saps every ounce of the joy from the classic. Â ‘It’s Not My Fault,’ a pounding, boring chant, is followed by the uninspired attempt at riddim, ‘Slang Tang,’ that does itself no favors with its borrowed title. Â Still, that the album concludes with three straight duds ends up being a sort of sequencing coup. Â It’s easy to enjoy the rest of the album as a piece and then hit the stop button as soon as you get to the Jackson 5. If its final third keeps it from album of the year type status, LP still works beautifully as a seven song EP. Â And even if it’s just a side project, it’s refreshing to hear these established musicians, stars of the indie world, push themselves into new sonic territory. Â Discovery sounds at once familiar and like nothing you’ve ever heard. Â In LP, they’ve created a terrific soundtrack for a summertime crush. Â What more could you want? 77% Discovery on Myspace Discovery is the collaboration between Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend and Wes Miles from Ra Ra Riot. Â Their debut, LP, has been much blogged and bitched about over the past few weeks. Â To be simplistic, most of the criticism goes something like this: white kids shouldn’t play R&B OR this isn’t indie rock because pop music is our enemy. Â Batmanglij’s Vampire Weekend membership surely only exacerbates people’s impression of him as a cultural carpetbagger. Â But these complaints (and even some of the praise that paints the album as mindless fun) feel like conservative bullshit coming from a community that prides itself on originality. Â LP, like Vampire Weekend’s debut, exhilarates because it takes a fairly straightforward genre (in this case contemporary R&B/pop), wraps it in warm, shiny sounds and then propels itself along with unexpected structural twists.The album opens on a fantastic five song run culminating in album highlight ‘So Insane’. ‘Orange Shirt’ establishes the group’s sound at the top: round, inviting synthesizers and beats, spiked with trilling runs, as the bed for processed singing about the dewy first moments of love. Â The next two tracks provide the only moments truly reminiscent of the band’s Vampire Weekend roots. ‘Osaka Loop Line’ is Timbaland’s strobing ‘Ride My Pony’ production in the service of Ezra Koenig’s songwriting (he co-wrote this track) and on ‘Can You Discover’ Batmanglij’s familiar keyboards give buoyancy to the angelic and melancholy courtship of the vocals. Â Discovery is best at its weirdest and ‘So Insane,’ with its nervous, stuttering verses that melt into a woozy, lovesick chorus, is the culmination of the group’s aesthetic. Â It sounds like falling in love.You can almost hear Discovery run out of ideas on their cover of ‘I Want You Back’, which ham-handedly applies the band’s gauzy sound to the original and in the process saps every ounce of the joy from the classic. Â ‘It’s Not My Fault’, a pounding, boring chant, is followed by the uninspired attempt at riddim, ‘Slang Tang’, that does itself no favors with its borrowed title. Â Still, that the album concludes with three straight duds ends up being a sort of sequencing coup. Â It’s easy to enjoy the rest of the album as a piece and then hit the stop button as soon as you get to the Jackson 5.If its final third keeps it from album of the year type status, LP still works beautifully as a seven song EP. Â And even if it’s just a side project, it’s refreshing to hear these established musicians, stars of the indie world, push themselves into new sonic territory. Discovery sounds at once familiar and like nothing you’ve ever heard. Â In LP, they’ve created a terrific soundtrack for a summertime crush. Â What more could you want? 77%Discovery on Myspace