Even in the worst case scenario, it's hard to imagine that the Vampire Weekend album could be more insufferable than Matthew Friedberger's take-down of it / them...

I don't know that for sure, though, because I haven't heard the record yet.

I'm nervous about listening to it.

Reading this positive (8/10) review at Spin by Mike Powell (who's persuasively praised Vampire before) I found myself thinking "this sounds like something I'd never want to hear... a record about things I'd never want to think or feel". Same goes for this slightly less laudatory appraisal ( 3/5) at Tiny Mix Tapes.

Yet I adored the first album and loved bits of the second.

This struck me as fairly putrid on first listen.

Still a friend (and good authority) who's had the advance for a couple of months now says that initial distaste gave way to love quite quickly, so maybe I will brave it.