After weeks of dropping peculiar online hints, Vampire Weekend has announced that their second album Contra is set for release on January 12th, 2010.

Suggestions that this album was almost primed were evident a while ago when pictures of a blonde girl wearing a polo shirt started circulating online a while back, linked to a site called IThinkUrAContra.com- taken from the album’s final track.

The band has again handed the reigns of producer to guitarist-keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij, who has already indicated his pleasure with the 10 tracks on offer. “We’re taking what we did on the first album to the next level,” he told Rolling Stone in an interview earlier this year. “These songs would be perfect for driving up the Pacific coast.”

Unfortunately, without access to said coast it remains to be seen what setting Australian listeners will require to best access these songs. We shall have to wait and find out.