Of all of the bold bands to emerge from New York within the early 2000s, Vampire Weekend are one of many few to achieve unrelenting relevance and curiosity of their new materials within the many years since. By no means underdelivering or surrendering to the deadly consolation of recreating their early success, every file that adopted their 2008, self-titled debut has maintained a component of innovation, whereas additionally preserving a agency grasp on the kaleidoscopic soundscapes which have been central to their enchantment.
It’s to not say they’ve been extensively favored – an accused air of prep-school pretentiousness has proved to be divisive – but it’s a testomony to their unwillingness to care that they’ve attained a long life not afforded to lots of their friends. Maybe a component of that comes all the way down to their inherent brightness: their jangly, wonky pop rhythms; frontman Ezra Koenig’s mild vocals murmuring summary observations on youth; the plethora of simply accessible hits that coexist alongside his extra poignant, elusive songwriting.
In some ways, their first album with most of their authentic lineup in virtually a decade following 2019’s pleasing if indifferent ‘Father Of The Bride’ (an Ezra Koenig solo album in all however identify that was influenced by a transfer to California), appears to exist in a special canon; it lacks, purposely maybe, the extra apparent hooks current on earlier albums. It’s under no circumstances an entire reinvention: there’s parts of 2013’s ‘Trendy Vampires Of The Metropolis’’s anxious outlook, and extra concise takes on the joyful, jam band essence that outlined ‘Father Of The Bride’. Principally, although, ‘Solely God Was Above Us’ is its personal sensory overload, heavy on distortion, hip-hop rhythms and pressing drum fills. On ‘Mary Boone, for instance, a easy twinkling piano motif is woven all through to ship moments of peace amid the chaos.
An ode to twentieth century New York (a tone set by the rusting subway carriage on the album’s cowl), ‘Solely God Was Above Us’ is a file that emits infinite heat, searching for to seize the environment of a long-gone period that after promised infinite risk. It’s a time now painfully out of attain, each within the music business and wider tradition. “When ‘Contra’ got here out, I knew the context it was made in; when this album comes out, I solely realize it when it comes to Vampire Weekend’s profession.” Koenig mentioned in a latest interview. It is sensible then that as an album it doesn’t appear to try to belong anyplace, as a substitute searching for to exist by itself phrases.
It might even be why Koenig, now nearing 40, affords a sequence of musings every extra sombre than the final. “I do know what lies beneath Manhattan” he sings on ‘Pravda’, with the jaded certainty of somebody wanting again from the opposite facet. ‘Gen X Cops’, a monitor the band revealed they’ve slowly whittled away at for years, comprises one of the crucial memorable, and well timed, lyrics on the file: “every era makes its personal apology”, he sighs. It’s additionally maybe the closest factor on ‘Solely God Was Above Us’ to a conventional Vampire Weekend earworm, although it follows the unpredictability of the remainder of the album, opening with a grating guitar riff earlier than dispersing into an experimental jazz piano solo. Elsewhere ‘Capricorn’, a subdued demi-ballad, is undeniably one among their biggest songs but, outlined by its wearisome recommendation of “you don’t need to attempt”.
Lyrically, then, it’s a file characterised by its pessimism, but musically it’s amongst their most joyful. ‘Mary Boone’ (named after an influential New York artwork seller who was convicted of tax evasion in 2019) with its vibrant piano, British R&B pattern, and hopeful choral thrives affords the sort of maximalism inherent to Vampire Weekend. It’s an bold concoction of sounds that don’t appear to exist in the identical realm, but intertwine naturally beneath Koenig’s more and more sullen vocals.
Regardless of its sentimental homages to the historical past of their hometown, ‘Solely God Was Above Us’ isn’t a nostalgic album. Somewhat than adopting an excessively rose tinted view of the previous to deal with the current, Koenig appears to be nice with embracing that issues simply aren’t that nice. And, in some methods, this model of considering could be interpreted as optimism – particularly for a band intrinsically linked to the ‘earlier than occasions’. There’s a hoop of distinctly millennial buoyancy of their early information, an angle that has crashed and burned within the years since. And, whereas 2019’s ‘Father Of The Bride’ supplied sun-soaked musings on the dread of contemporary life, this time round they appear to have, albeit reluctantly, discovered peace with all we will’t change.
It’s why closing monitor ‘Hope’ marks a poignant ending to an album filled with fatalism. Koenig fastidiously lists a spiral of miserable fashionable truths – “The prophet’s gone however we’re nonetheless right here/His prophecy was insincere” and “The enemy’s invincible”, every time concluding with “I hope you let it go” instead of an answer. An anthem for passive acceptance, it’s a sprawling virtually eight-minute monitor that speaks to a wider lack of management that’s permeated the tradition up to now few years. And, listening to Koenig’s voice draw this decision is all of the extra harrowing, given it as soon as soundtracked an period of seemingly boundless optimism.
Particulars
- Launch date: April 5, 2024
- Document label: Columbia