Review: Vampire Weekend’s “Only God Was Above Us” reminisces, reinvents band’s sound

Vampire Weekend’s fifth album, “Only God Was Above Us,” might just be the preppy indie-rock group’s magnum opus. 

Fifteen years have passed since Vampire Weekend entered the music scene, and anyone who has seen “Gossip Girl” or heard the band’s famous “A-Punk” is at least somewhat familiar with the group’s unique, catchy sound.

“Only God Was Above Us” builds on the band’s well-known experimental style, combining self-aware lyricism with a cacophonous soundscape. The ten-track album refines Vampire Weekend’s signature baroque pop style, an amalgamation of classical music instrumentals and rock lyrics. 

Self-aware, indeed, one of the album’s pre-released singles, “Classical,” expands on the eccentric euphoria of purposeful dissonance that Vampire Weekend knows so well. Swelling saxophones and orchestral arrangements pair with socially conscious lyrics crooned by frontman Ezra Koeing. 

“Capricorn,” another single on the album, is dominated by deliberately distorted guitars. But the beautifully ponderous, intentionally bleak lyrics about aging are “Capricorn”’s true allure.

“The world looked different when God was on your side,” Koeing sings. “Who builds the future? Do they care why?”

As “Capricorn” fades out, the fourth track, “Connect” brings back a familiar tune. The drums repeat a distinctive beat found in “Mansard Roof,” the first single released from the group’s self-titled record back in 2007.

Koeing sings about feeling disconnected from his own memories, but the electronic, jazzy sound dominates the track and brings forth a nostalgic familiarity with one of the band’s first songs. 

It’s easy to forget to pay attention to Vampire Weekend’s lyrics as you get lost in the instrumental exploration, but the poetry of Koeing’s writing remains strong throughout the album while each track takes on its own unique melody.

Released alongside “Capricorn” in February as the first teaser singles, “Gen-X Cops” is an upbeat tune of twinkling pianos and sliding bass. The lyrics, however, tell a different story.

The track grapples with the fading heyday of millennials and the unstoppable tide of a once-energetic, young generation growing up and reluctantly surrendering its youth.

“Dodged the draft but can’t dodge the war,” Koeing sings. “Forever cursed to live insecure / The curtain drops, a gang of Gen-X cops assembles trembling before our human nature.” 

Vampire Weekend’s introspection is a testament to the group’s ability to change with the times. Though still recognizable by their niche sound, the band has moved beyond singing about the Columbia University campus and the romanticism of a summer in Cape Cod. Instead, Koeing and his bandmates deliver unattractive truths about growing pains in their lyrics.

“Only God Was Above Us” isn’t just an anthem for aging, though. It also pays homage to New York City’s maturing — and fading — by naming headline-makers of the city’s past.

“Mary Boone,” the last single released before the album dropped on April 5, is both an ode to the New York City art dealer the song takes its name from and the band’s curious reggae inspirations.

The real Mary Boone was a prominent New York art dealer in the late 20th century before her fall from grace in 2019 after being convicted of tax evasion. 

The not-so-subtle nod to the socialite-turned-criminal is an elegy for the New York that once was. The album cover, a 1988 photograph of a graffiti-riddled subway car, also honors a fossilized, 1980s city.

“Only God Was Above Us” ends, quite literally, on a hopeful note. The tenth and final track, titled “Hope,” is almost eight minutes long and repeats “I hope you let it go.”

Vampire Weekend leaves listeners with a sense of reluctant, inevitable optimism that can only come with the new perspective that growing older brings.

Aged out of the naive idealism of their youth, Vampire Weekend insists that letting go, acceptance and self-realization is all that is left to do.

“Only God Was Above Us” is a project about the band doing just that: letting go of its early-2000s themes of Ivy League hypercriticisms, accepting the passage of time and reflecting on its purpose and style as a group of artists.

@carlybreland

@dthlifestyle | lifestyle@dailytarheel.com