Only God Was Above Us | Album Review

Last Friday welcomed new Vampire Weekend music for the first time since 2019’s Father of The Bride. Ezra Koenig let the indie pedigree of their early album trilogy mingle with jam band and country influences for that sprawling record, but this time he reunited with CT and Baio for a much tighter follow up. Blending inspiration from their early works with a brand new gritty, chaotic energy, Vampire Weekend presented us with the incredible Only God Was Above Us.

No stranger to topical lyrics, Koenig opens the album with a quiet “Fuck the world” amidst distorted feedback on “Ice Cream Piano” – promising explosive highs for the rest of the record, closing with a classic string section straight off their debut.

Holding no punches, the band continues with “Classical” – another self-titled esque track that speaks to how stories of oppression and cruelty fade in our histories, leaving behind monuments stripped of context and meaning for future generations to ponder. And with a sick sax solo to boot!

“Capricorn” upholds Koenig’s dark lyrical tendencies as the lead single for the record, detailing his lost generation of millennials’ failing quest to find space and make change with a tearful piano riff and the closest thing we’ll get to shoegaze from the group on the second and final choruses.

Baio unleashes a brilliant performance on the bass for “Connect” – a hauntingly funky number that samples the “Mansard Roof” drum break mixed in with delicate piano leads and reverbed harmonies. It’s their most explorative and twisted song since “Diplomat’s Son” – I wish they got weird more often.

Where the naive narrator of “Campus” and “Oxford Comma” mingles on Ivy League lawns, he returns to grounds as a jaded alum on “Prep School Gangsters” Violins dance along with Koenig’s signature Epiphone Sheraton tone – a grown up Vampire Weekend spring time hit.

Surf rock takes the stage on “The Surfer” – a slow burning track perfect to turn into a twenty minute jam sesh fit with commanding brass sections and mellow guitars. They give the listener a short respite before the blistering “Gen X Cops” with the hardest indie riff since “A-Punk” infected your iTunes back in 2008.

In time honored Vampire Weekend tradition, the band produces a magnanimous banger titled with a woman’s full government name. This time, famous New York City art dealer “Mary Boone”. Koenig imagines himself a discarded painting, tossed away in the darkness of his lover’s gallery. A heavenly chorus echoes his fate, with his excited “woo!” coming in to dance through the heart break.

“Pravda” pulls on some of FOTB’s country duet influences in its pulsing lead riff and repeating folk lines in the verse, before descending into a messy haze in its final chorus, diverging into an uneasy warning – “I hope you know your brain’s not bulletproof.”

Only God Was Above Us closes with “Hope” – an eight minute epic spanning messianic prophecies, political assassinations, broken promises, and, well, hope. Each verse and bridge comes with a new layer of sound, and new meaning for the listener.

Koenig repeats a quiet plea, we can’t escape our chains while holding onto their links. The first step in moving forward is to let go, both of our past victories and failures. The game was never fair, no point calling it out. Only action remains.

“I did the things you asked me to
I testified what wasn’t true
But now I lost my faith in you
I hope you let it go”

Hope

Check out a recap of Vampire Weekend’s release celebration of Only God Was Above Us at Austin’s Moody Amphitheater at Gone Gazing.