Five years removed from their earthy, Album of the Year-nominated fourth full-length Father of the Bride, Vampire Weekend has returned with another modern rock moonshot. For all of Father’s tie-dyed inclinations – and despite drummer Chris Tomson’s dalliances with the world of noodling, by way of his psychedelic side project Taper’s Choice – Vampire Weekend’s fifth full-length, Only God Was Above Us, returns the band to more familiar, erudite territory.
Already one of his rock generation’s best lyricists, Ezra Koenig further refines his craft here, rendering philosophical musings with succinct style and flair. And while Only God’s average track length is a minute longer than on any other Vampire Weekend album, the songs are no worse for it – rather, Vampire Weekend earns these run times by stuffing them with a wealth of ideas. Credit longtime producer Ariel Rechtshaid, who, since Rostam Batmanglij left the band nearly a decade ago, has become the de facto fourth Vampire – and helps to give Only God’s frequent chaos remarkable clarity. (Rechtshaid’s is just one of the liner notes’ impressive names; session musicians who have collaborated with artists from Travis Scott to Kamasi Washington worked on Only God, and studio whiz Dave Fridmann worked with Vampire Weekend for the first time as mixer.)
The new album internalizes the decade that’s elapsed since the band’s stately 2013 masterpiece, Modern Vampires of the City: Only God often feels like a funhouse of Vampire Weekends past, synthesizing the concise grooves of their self-titled 2008 debut and its 2010 follow-up Contra with Modern Vampires’ ornateness and Father’s feral side. With knowing musical and lyrical allusions to the group’s catalog, Only God is Vampire Weekend at its meta best.
Check out a preliminary ranking of the 10 tracks on Only God Was Above Us.
