For too long we have been silently judged by the expressionless blonde in a popped yellow Polo shirt without even knowing what she sounds like. Vampire Weekend’s next album Contra, which drops Jan. 12, 2010, features the aforementioned blonde on its cover and has had the blogging world buzzing over what it contains inside. This silence has been broken however by the release of LP opener “Horchata,” a reference of course to the regional nut based beverage.

Contra will open with a drawn out breath and the words “In December drinking horchata / I look psychotic in a balaclava.” With these exotic sounding ten dollar words and further coded references to San Pellegrino water and sandals in the winter, this track is lyrically in keeping with the literary preppy-ness that Vampire Weekend have established for themselves over the course of their self-titled debut and the ensuing singles. Through its words, “Horchata” takes the listener on a trip through an ambiguous past relationship filled with intimate talk of lips and “feelings you thought you’d forgotten.”

The music however makes the track, and shows Vampire Weekend expanding on the intricate rhythms and harmonies that have defined their recorded output thus far. After the opening vocals, a fast paced and intricate drum part juxtaposed with a simple backing vocal comes to dominate the song. Throughout the track though, this gives way to the vocals, which are accompanied by a subdued string section and various bells and whistles (literally and figuratively). The breakdown in the middle of the song is the highlight, with frontman Ezra Koening’s high-pitched vocals being supported by the complexity of the accompanying instruments. Overall, this gives the song a nostalgic feel that brings forth feelings of loss and a desire to start again.

Vampire Weekend set the bar pretty high with their self titled-album (recently named #51 on Pitchfork’s Top 200 Albums of the Decade list). Their mix of seemingly exotic instrumentations with a classic liberal arts education produced a collection of tracks that introduced a new audience to their brand of independent music and propelled them to indie rock superstardom. While “Horchata” would have felt at home on their debut, recorded in 2007, this is definitely coming from a band two years down the road. This invigorating tune provokes excitement for Contra and proves that Vampire Weekend will not go down as one-album-wonders.