Only God Was Above Us
There’s a sense of optimism that comes through Vampire Weekend’s fifth album that makes it float, a sense of hope—a little worn down, a little roughed up, a little tired and in need of a shave, maybe—but hope nonetheless. “By the time you’re pushing 40, you’ve hit the end of a few roads, and you’re probably looking for something—I don’t know what to say—a little bit deeper,” Ezra Koenig tells Apple Music. “And you’re thinking about these ideas. Maybe they’re corny when you’re younger. Gratitude. Acceptance. All that stuff. And I think that’s infused in the album.” Take something like “Mary Boone,” whose worries and reflections (“We always wanted money, now the money’s not the same”) give way to an old R&B loop (Soul II Soul’s “Back to Life”). Or the way the piano runs on “Connect”—like your friend fumbling through a Gershwin tune on a busted upright in the next room—bring the song’s manic energy back to earth. Musically, they’ve never sounded more sophisticated, but they’ve also never sounded sloppier or more direct (“Prep-School Gangsters”). They’re a tuxedo with ripped Converse or a garage band with a full orchestra (“Ice Cream Piano”). And while you can trainspot the micro-references and little details of their indie-band sound (produced brilliantly by Koenig and longtime collaborator Ariel Rechtshaid), what you remember most is the big picture of their songs, which are as broad and comforting as great pop (“Classical”). “Sometimes I talk about it with the guys,” Koenig says. “We always need to have an amateur quality to really be us. There needs to be a slight awkward quality. There needs to be confidence and awkwardness at the same time.” Next to the sprawl of *Father of the Bride*, *OGWAU* (“og-wow”—try it) feels almost like a summary of the incredible 2007-2013 run that made them who they are. But they’re older now, and you can hear that, too, mostly in how playful and relaxed the album is. Listen to the jazzy bass and prime-time saxophone on “Classical” or the messy drums on “Prep-School Gangsters” (courtesy of Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes), or the way “Hope” keeps repeating itself like a school-assembly sing-along. It’s not cool music, which is of course what makes it so inimitably cool. Not that they seem to worry about that stuff anymore. “I think a huge element for that is time, which is a weird concept,” Koenig says. ”Some people call it a construct. I’ve heard it’s not real. That’s above my pay grade, but I will say, in my experience, time is great because when you’re bashing your head against the wall, trying to figure out how to use your brain to solve a problem, and when you learn how to let go a little bit, time sometimes just does its thing.” For a band that once announced themselves as the preppiest, most ambitious guys in the indie-rock room, letting go is big.
On their masterfully knotty fifth album, Vampire Weekend go on a self-mythological journey into old sounds, old haunts, and old cities to find something new within.
Their fifth studio album is a technicolour, sprawling ode a long-gone, old New York City. Read the NME review
Only God Was Above Us defines itself by a heady mix of retrospection and relinquishment to the future – a coming-of-age awareness writ large in previous phases of Vampire Weekend's career lent further prescience with the passing of each entry in their…
Vampire Weekend take all the right risks to deliver a superb return to form on their awaited fifth album, 'Only God Was Above Us.'
Ezra Koenig gets the original band back together for a record that incorporates the best of their original sound with musings on conflict, life and art
Fifth album from the hipster kings is a neat summation of where they've been, while still looking forward.
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A day prior to the release of Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut album in January 2008, Pitchfork’s Nitsuh Abebe called it “already one of the most talked-about and divisive records of the year.”
A kaleidoscopic culmination of their finest merits, 'Only God Was Above Us' is a polished, experimental summation of Vampire Weekend's world of reverb and
Indian raga, hip-hop and scuzzy, Strokes-like rock replace the west African guitar sounds of old on Ezra Koenig and co’s dazzling fifth album
Vampire Weekend's ‘Only God Was Above Us’ sometimes dips into the chaotic, which crystallizing our perception of the past.
'Only God Was Above Us' demonstrates that melodic, clean guitars are welcome but optional and that Vampire Weekend have plenty of other tricks up their sleeves.
Only God Was Above Us by Vampire Weekend album review by David Saxum for Northern Transmissions, the band's LP drops on April 5th via Columbia
Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us review: Let me bring you my masterpiece
Album is boiling with ideas from the combined creative efforts of Ezra Koenig, Chris Baio and Chris Tomson