Only God Was Above Us - Vampire Weekend: Review

Review by Lav:

Jesus Christ this album is so good it's ridiculous. Wait a minute, let me start over. Vampire Weekend are a New York indie rock outfit who have been putting out music since the 2000s, though their production has slowed quite a bit in recent years. After nearly 20 years as a band Only God Was Above Us is their 5th album and it comes four years after their highly-anticipated return album Father Of The Bride. I reviewed that album when it came out and said a lot of positive things about it, but in the back of my mind, I kind of knew that while it was good it wasn't absolutely everything I wanted it to be. Well, Only God is everything I want it to be and more. It might be my favorite Vampire Weekend album to date and I have fucking loved this band since I first became an active music listener, plus last year I dropped a video calling Modern Vampires Of The City the best album of 2013. That's just how good Only God is. 

It started with the singles. Now Vampire Weekend singles are ALWAYS great, I can hardly thing of even one I don't enjoy. But even among a stacked legacy of great pre-album teasers, this record got some incredible contributions. Capricorn was one-half of the lead-off singles and it has owned my entire life since it dropped. Even though it's the kind of gentle Vampire Weekend ballad that they've absolutely mastered by this point it has an instrumental edge to it with sputtering noise that hovers over the chorus in a way they've never had before. I find the song's eruption onto the hook completely irresistible not to mention the word-bending writing somehow assembling into infectious refrains. 

Classical followed and it's yet another highlight. The idea of debating which version of "classical" will remain when there's massive change is such a clever lyrical turn of phrase but it also fits so perfectly into the refrain that I almost can't believe how good it sounds. The final single was Mary Boone which was yet another absolute smash for me. The verses with the backing vocals are so emotive even as they're so gentle and when the trip-hop drums kick in it's one of the best moments on the entire album. On top of the amazing instrumental this is a world-class vocal performance from Ezra throughout. 

As you'd expect the highlights don't stop there. I even love the B-side from the lead single Gen-X Cops. I was pretty focused on Capricorn at the time but this song is also absolutely excellent. The wiry surf-rock riffs are absolutely infectious as is pretty much the entire song. The Surfer begins with a drum and bass combo that definitely had me thinking I put on the wrong record somehow. The way the song builds up momentum with subsequent instrumental introduction followed by the slowly upping intensity of the refrains is just masterful. It takes its time and plays with space while even having some subtle lounge vibes around the instrumental breaks. The song goes places you'd never expect from the humble beginnings and I'm just so in awe of it. 

The album starts off really strong with Ice Cream Piano. It's a silly name for a song that makes such a cynical impression with its opening lyrics. There's an interesting contract between Ezra's absolutely enticing melodies and the lyrics about war and apathy. Eventually, the song erupts into this array of instrumentation with a wiry touch that fans of the band won't be used to hearing on VW songs. It's so much more brash than you'd expect to start one of their albums and yet I absolutely adore it. 

The album also closes on a strong moment starting with Pravda. It's a piece of indie rock bliss with absolutely all the instrumentation just glistening so well and the refrains rolling directly into my brain and staying there. It's one of the most familiar moments on the record but one the band absolutely nails. Closing track Hope is the big 8-minute finale for the record and the band makes the most of that time. The early moments on the song are colder and slower developing like multiple highlights from Modern Vampires Of The City. It has these self-contained verse and hook combinations that are split by instrumental passages. Eventually, it turns to a full-on instrumental eruption with rising synths and a more dense array of instrumentation. The final verse is backed by whirring distortion and louder wailing reverb soaking seemingly every sound. It's a strong finish to the record that seems well-earned. 

The album doesn't have any misses, I like every song here. But it's a matter of degrees and the middle of the record does serve up some moments I think are just okay. Connect is probably the most restless song on the album with lots of instrumental shifting and a variety of textures laced into the song throughout. Every part of it feels like a normal song from an instrumentally verbose indie band but sped up and mashed together with two other songs. It's more chaotic than I was anticipating but at the very least it pumps a lot of energy back into the record following the gentler sentimentalities of Capricorn. Finally there's Pre-School Gangsters which might be the most Vampire Weekend song title I've ever seen and it lives up to that promise. The careening strings all over the song and the steady drums backing the verses spin into a much more involved instrumental presentation that works really well. 

This is the best album I've heard in 2024 so far. The fact that a band I've loved for so long can drop an album I was so excited for and still managed to exceed my expectations is almost hard to believe. But with every return listen of Only God Was Above Us I'm blown away by the band's creativity and ambition from nearly start to finish. With a tracklist whose all killer no filler presentation remedies mistakes made on Father Of The Bride, Vampire Weekend has firmly cemented a second era of their career that is every bit as good as the first one. Believe the hype, because Only God Above Us really is just that good. 9/10

For more indie check out my review of MGMT's Loss Of Life