Any fears that the zippy Afro-pop of these New York-based hipsters was a novelty – so very 2008 – are quickly dispelled on this confident and completely entertaining second album. Yes, the opening couplet ("In December drinking horchata/ I'd look psychotic in a balaclava") sounds like the work of someone who got a dictionary for Christmas, but there the clever-clever archness ends.

Contra, like its predecessor, spills over with limber rhythms and percussive bounce, evoking sunny, "exotic" climes far from ice-cool Manhattan. Vampire Weekend say California has been a big influence on their sound but, even on the twitchy and sweeping dance number California English, they still sound like they've been mixing up and reimagining the soundtracks of The Lion King and Avatar. And this is entirely a compliment.

The throbbing, minimal Taxi Cub (Kraftwerk with added classical piano), the agit-funk of Cousins (the Police with festive bells on), the dreamy, synth-pop Giving Up the Gun (sure to be a jump-around hit come the summer festival season) – these are anthems as immediate as they are ambitious. Even when the joins show in Vampire Weekend's erudition and musical literacy – notably on the six-minute, squelchy MIA-with-an-MA-does-reggae (how horrid does that sound on paper?) of Diplomat's Son – their easy way with a melody saves the day.