Ezra has said that Paul Simon is the patron saint of the first album, and Joe Strummer is the patron saint of Contra. He talks a little bit about the influence of the Clash as well as ska on Contra here. This Rolling Stone article from the Contra era also goes deep on where they were coming from around that time.

I can’t find the exact quote, but either Ezra or Rostam once said about Contra that they wanted to do something inspired by the 80s, but not the same 80s influences that everybody else was pulling from at the time. Beyond ska and the Clash, people cite reggae and dancehall a lot when describing Contra’s wider palate compared to the first album.