Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

Let's break it down:

Title: Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa Cape Cod is a summer town in Massachusetts. Suggests wealth, relaxation, privilege Kwassa Kwassa is an African dance rhythm that was popular in the 80s. Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon were fond of using it in their music. More recently, Vampire Weekend used it in this song.

Elements: linen, made beds, sweaters on, United colors of Benetton, Louis Vuitton, awkward yet bold proposal for sex, unnatural feeling

Themes: Hints of of affluent, late 80s girl who is relatively sheltered, Late 80's era music

Analysis: This is a portrait of sheltered young people, probably in Cape Cod. The themes here make the whole narrative feel rather like a J. Crew catalog: Bright, name-branded, anesthetized. Chorus brings these elements to the fore ( "is your bed made?") right before "do you want to fuck?" This is intended to be an inversion. The contradictory nature of the chorus is strengthened by "feels so unnatural..."; even so, there is a curiosity on the part of the singer. He is highly inquisitive and analytical, asking various questions and analyzing the feel of the situation instead of diving right into it. It would appear that that VW invoke Peter Gabriel and United Colors of Benetton to create a tone of pseudo-cultural awareness in a relatively shelter milieu (as well as background: it's the late 80s, Peter Gabriel is huge, Benetton ads are everywhere, making people feel as though they can buy multiculturalism at a shopping mall). This is not the point, however: A Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa refers to a rhythm, the kwassa kwassa rhythm as interpreted by Cape Cod. The point: VW seem to be discussing the sheltered, somewhat pampered, wholly neutered existence of this young couple. There is a curiosity and interest in the world around them, but their various luxuries are a hiderance to the growth of their consciousnesses. Well intentioned though they are, their forays are clumsy, obvious, and ill-conceived. So who are these young people? Kids today? VW listeners? People VW knew earlier in life? Your guess is as good as mine.

Makes me want to take off my pants and rub applesauce on my crotch.

it is definitely about banging but is the most intelligent song about banging that i have ever heard.

I am LOVING this song. Even to a thirty-something with 2 kids, for whom college is a distant (yet fond!) memory, this song rocks. I would like to offer my analysis of the lyrics, mostly because my husband (who doesn’t have the same taste in music) told me that he doesn’t “get” it. I think I’ve deciphered it:

This song is about a college couple/hook-up, one sophomore from Cape Cod and her “reggaeton” partner/boyfriend, potentially from (at least in his mind) the proverbial wrong side of the tracks. The title itself gives me a chuckle because it forecasts the contrast between the two characters- Cape Cod couldn’t be any further away, culturally or geographically, from the Congo, the geocenter of Kwassa Kwassa music. And the “reggaeton” boyfriend fancies himself to be worldly in contrast to the Cape Cod-raised, preppy girl; through the lyrics he expresses slight disdain for her designer-conscious, buttoned-up and sheltered upbringing (apparently even the quality of her college bed linens is notable to him). But, despite the differences in their backgrounds (and even though in his head, his attraction to her “feels so unnatural”), he wants to bang her anyway! And as for the mention of Peter Gabriel, to me it’s a direct reference to the movie Say Anything where the protagonist (John Cusak, playing a high school guy from the “wrong side of the tracks”) plays the Peter Gabriel song “In Your Eyes” on his boom box to serenade to his white-bread, preppy love interest (Ione Skye). Aaaah, college. It’s the first time that many of us have the opportunity to meet, and screw, people from completely different backgrounds. Love it!

It's about banging.

I am positive that the girl in Cape Cod, Ottoman, and Oxford Comma is the same. First, let me start off with the reoccurring line in Ottoman and Cap Cod- "Feels so unnatural, Peter Gabriel", suggesting that the boy in the relationship felt odd being with a girl who was into things like Peter Gabriel, while he may have been more of the reggaeton kind of guy. Next, in both Ottoman and Oxford Comma, he mentions an elite class, British by the reference of "some parliamentary hall"- Ottoman, which is backed up in Oxford Comma by refrences of The UN, as well as "English dramas". There is also the reoccurance of paintings- OC: "Show your paintings at the United Nations", as well as in Ottoman: "Begging you to sit for a portrait on the wall/ To hang in the dark of some parliamentary hall", suggesting that the girl likes to make paintings, and shows them often in elegant circles.

Which makes us think that she is wealthy, a fact that is backed up in all three songs: CC: "As a young girl, Louis Vuitton"; "And the linens you're sittin' on/Is your bed made?/Is your sweater on?"; "In the colors of Benetton", all of these quotes suggesting wealth- designer brands, strict rules, even the setting, Cape Cod. This theme is touched on in OC, as well: "Crack a smile, adjust my tie Know your boyfriend (first verse)/butler (second verse), unlike other guys", which implies that the girl has introduced him as both her butler and boyfriend, an insult to his class, and the fact that she would even have a butler suggest bourgeoisie. The fact that she knows what an Oxford Comma is suggests an upper class, elite education, too. Lastly, I'll look at Ottoman: "Elegant clothes, you want to be seen with her/Under your tweeds you sweat like a teenager"; "All of the cards and all of the time it took"; "There will be six bells a-ringing and white women singing for you". Tweed is, of course, a classy fabric, which would, again, suggest propriety. Then we've got the cards and time put into the occasion, which suggests that there was maybe a party planner, something that would imply affluence. Then the white women singing solely for her suggests that she is having a major function in her name, something much more extravagant than a backyard sweet sixteen, as the lower and middle class are more accustomed to.

Hopefully I've convinced you that this is the same girl in all three songs, and now I will analyze the boy's relationship with her. He obviously was dating her "Know your boyfriend, unlike other guys"; "Crack a smile, adjust my tie"; "Why would you speak to me that way?"; "Through the pain/ I always tell the truth"- all from Oxford Comma. These are obvious statements that you would find related to a couple, the last two quotes being a couple that is fighting. In Cape Cod, we see the boy say "Do you want to fuck?/ Like you know I do"- an obvious sexual attraction to the girl, but he also says "This feels so unnatural" as well as "Can you stay up to see the dawn?"; "Is your bed made?/ Is your sweater on?"- these statements implying that he feels out of place with her class, and that he is ridiculing it- the tone of "is your sweater on" is motherly, and followed by "do you want to fuck", as it is in the song, would definitely suggest mockery. This cultural gap is reiterated in Oxford Comma with the "know your butler/ boyfriend" statement. So, obviously the boy feels out of place with his lover, who is a high society lady.

That's really all I have to say on this matter, except that I love all three songs, as well as Vampire Weekend, and I think they're pretty much the gods of indie rock.

I like that this song has that 60s California beach vibe to it, talking about a prep boy trying to get laid...it fits.

"Feels so unnatural, Peter Gabriel too"...I'm a huge, huge Peter Gabriel fan, but he doesn't really have songs you want to have sex to. "Shaking the Tree" and "Games without Frontiers" have good beat but...no, thank you.

The first part, "As a young girl, Luis Vuitton". What woman has Luis Vuitton, let alone a young girl? So she has uber rich parents.

"As a sophomore, reggaeton"...Now she's older, trying to have her own personality, trying to be cool. Honestly, I don't know affluent white girl who actually likes reggaeton, but I know a few who play Daddy Yankee or whatever trying to look kinda hip and rebellious.

"Is your bed made? Is your sweater on?" - I see a girl just like on the video, a prim coed.

I think I might have found the song that inspired Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa. Listen to it carefully and you'll notice that the guitar sequences are very similar.

youtube.com/watch

OH, and also, i think "it's so unnatural, Peter Gabriel too" refers to the appropriation of music from other cultures into western music and the moral dilemmas that this kind of presents.

Mr. Me, you're a genius. I read these lyrics and loved the references to Benneton and Peter Gabriel. After some research I got the meaning of the song but the way you broke down the actual musical style as both Cape Codian and a Kwassa Kwassa was brilliant and lends me a new level of appreciation for this song.