Album Review
Only God Was Above Us
by Vampire Weekend
Released 4/5/2024
Words By Joe Vickrey
While each song is performed intentionally and crafted meticulously, no element is devoid of human touch. Stunning, peaceful, and a wonderful listen that will keep your toe tapping and head bobbing involuntarily: Vampire Weekend has done it again.
Growing up in a rural Oregon town, “A-Punk” may have been my first exposure to proper indie rock. It was catchy, fast, and wasn’t soaked in distortion or toxic masculinity like everything else I heard on MTV. I had to know more. I spent my allowance on their debut album and fell in love with Vampire Weekend. I can still remember my dad saying, “There’s no way these guys are from America” as we listened to it on the drive home from the record store (they are).
The band’s new release, Only God Was Above Us, feels more like a follow up to their early work rather than expanding on their 2019 Dentist Office Waiting Room Album of the Year, Father of the Bride. The inner monologue lyrics feel distinctly fresh while staying on brand for the group, while the instrumentation of the album continuously morphs without feeling like it’s lost its way.
I get excited when I hear a song that I can’t figure out how it was written. Too often, a song comes on the radio, and I can reasonably assume it was written with a guitar and a blunt.
With songs like “Connect,” I genuinely have no idea how anyone would write a song like that. Glitchy drums and sped up pianos aren’t most people’s songwriting medium—though I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how Ezra Koening writes all his songs.
In the funniest way possible, the album’s second single, “Classical,” sounds like a jazzier sequel to “St. Andrew” by The White Stripes. Reversed sounds, funky upright bass, and strange mellotron bagpipe noises are the cherries on top of a performance that just oozes out lighthearted fun. Songs like “Mary Boone” and “Pravda” highlight the band’s continued ability to meld elements from other genres without sounding forced or cliché. They jump from old school hip hop drum beats to orchestration and choir, with glassy keyboards and arpeggiated guitars sprinkled in to keep the band feeling as interesting as they did when they debuted.
A handful of songs on the record sound like they’re founded on sampled jazz and soul recordings, but I’m guessing everything they used was recorded themselves—it’s just too perfect to line up the way it does. They can’t be a pillar of Indie and be Daft Punk. The drums have a very charming boombox feel to them; not sporadically, but throughout the whole album. It isn’t until “Hope,” the grand and gorgeous finale, that you hear a full frequency drum kit, and boy howdy does it feel good. This and a hundred other tiny details are what make the band’s latest entry feel so special.
Photo Courtesy Sony Music Ezra Koenig
I’ve always admired Vampire Weekend’s ability to craft an album. Each of their records feels like a play. While each song is performed intentionally and crafted meticulously, no element is devoid of human touch. Only God Was Above Us carries on this tradition and exemplifies it. The music feels relaxed without putting the listener to sleep. This is a collection of mostly mid-tempo tunes that not only avoids feeling slow or stagnant, but actively draws your attention in with every passing phrase. Stunning, peaceful, and a wonderful listen that will keep your toe tapping and head bobbing involuntarily: Vampire Weekend has done it again.