“Only God Was Above Us” is the title of Vampire Weekend’s fifth studio album.
The album, out April 5, is Ezra Koenig, Chris Baio and Chris Tomson’s first album in five years.
THE DISC
Inspired and imbued with the atmosphere of 20th century New York, the album was recorded all over the world, from Manhattan to Los Angeles, from London to Tokyo. “Only God Was Above Us” was primarily produced by Koenig and longtime collaborator Ariel Rechtshaid, mixed by Dave Fridmann and mastered by Emily Lazar.
“Only God Was Above Us” began to take shape in 2019-2020, when Koenig wrote the majority of the lyrics. The 10-track album is the product of five years spent refining, reworking and gradually shaping lyrical and melodic structures, bringing Vampire Weekend to a new creative peak. Direct and at the same time complex, the album shows the band at its grittiest, but also softest and most melodic.
“Only God Was Above Us” is a strong statement and gives the album an ironically profane and aggressive note; the album is filled with emotions, experiences, characters and stories, before ending with an unequivocal feeling of acceptance… and literally “Hope”:
“I hope you let it go
I hope you let it go
Our enemy’s invincible
I hope you let it go”
THE TRAILER
THE ARTWORK
The title is linked to the album’s artwork, composed of photos taken by Steven Siegel in a New Jersey subway cemetery in 1988.
On the album cover, a man in a subway car reads upside down the May 1, 1988 edition of the New York Daily News in which the cover story details the terrible explosion that tore off the roof of Aloha Airlines Flight 243.
The title quotes the testimony of a survivor, precisely “ONLY GOD WAS ABOVE US”.
THE TRACKLIST
Ice Cream Piano
Classical
Capricorn
Connect
Prep-School Gangsters
The Surfer
Gen-X Cops
Mary Boone
Pravda
Hope
To celebrate their release week, Vampire Weekend will perform in Austin, Texas, at noon on April 8, during one of the most anticipated and spectacular astronomical events: the total eclipse.
WEB & SOCIAL
www.instagram.com/vampireweekend
