Vampire Weekend, their “good” return, and how they left a lot on the table

Bryan Baste | Contributing Writer

Vampire Weekend is a band that doesn’t need a huge introduction. The band started in 2008 and since then has been at the forefront of popular indie music for well over a decade.

I could just play “A-Punk” and you would know what I mean, that song has been in Step Brothers, popular radio, and at your local Michael’s. 

Released in April, Vampire Weekend’s fifth album Only God Was Above Us is a good album, but—with a big emphasis on the “but”—the album has problems.

Starting with the opener Ice Cream Piano, the first lyric “Fuck the world, you said it quiet” made me cringe a bit seconds into the album so that’s already a fun start. This starts one of my issues with the album, which is Ezra Koenig’s voice, I can’t stand it on some of these songs including this one. He sounds constantly way too quiet and other times he has this whiny tone that never fits with all the orchestral instruments in the background. This song and some of the others also deal with bad mixing and production; Especially when the song picks up and gets more frenetic all the instruments peak and layer over each other. The drums build up the pace nicely but the synthesizers and guitars sound too chaotic and messy rather than help create a nice crazy build-up.

I do like the orchestral breakdowns and piano on this song, they give the song a great post-modern classical feel with huge singing violins and a nice plucky piano that sounds like something you’d hear at your local jazz bar.

Classical, the second track, has a beginning guitar loop that has a good acoustic flair that adds another player of depth to the track. 

But, oh my god, the instrumental breakdown sounds like something I would hear at a circus or something on goddamn Bluey. However, the sax and piano breakdown at the end of the track really does shine.

I haven’t really talked about the lyrics and that’s because I think at times, they are awful, “Classical” and “Ice Cream Piano” both deal with conflict as does the rest of the album.

Capricorn deals with someone being born on December 30th or 31st and not being able to spend that year in your new age after your birthday.

While I think the concept for the song is interesting and kinda random, lyrics like “the year that you were born”, “finished fast”, and “for moments of your own” really help me picture this concept.

But the rest of the lyrics outside the chorus make no sense in that regard, things like “I know you’re tired of trying’”, and  “listen, baby, you don’t have to try” don’t work in the context of what the song was trying to say and it boggles my mind that the concept of the song was so abstractly painted: like why?

Connect is more of the same with just such a snoozefest of a chorus despite all the sounds that are being injected into my earlobe and I think that’s due to the weird production choices because everything is so lowkey. All the synths and drums just kind of blend together there and it sounds really bad.

Prep-School Gangsters is another boring song with another interesting topic of conflict between rich kids in New York wanting to be in gangs and the social commentary that comes with it. 

But again, the instrumentation is boring as hell with the same bassline and drum being repeated for most of the song, and while I do like the little guitar tinges, it gets grating after a while.

The Surfer is up next and this is easily my favorite track of the album.

A fun lil sample of Koenig vocals mixed with the song is a nice fun touch, but the star of the show is this wonderful surf guitar that slides and rides around the chorus.

As well the violins and piano are mixed perfectly and sound fantastic, Koenig’s vocals sound genuinely great here.

This song is followed by one of their worst on the album which is Gen-X Cops, I get the concept and I like the concept. Generation X has set up a lot of millennials for failure but Koenig just sounds so whiney in this track it gets really damn annoying.

The guitar tone and production sounds so overexposed it genuinely reminds me of nails on a chalkboard as cliche as that is.

Mary Boone is another highlight where Koenig sounds genuinely emotional, especially with the pre-chorus lines like “Oh, my love, was it all in vain?” and “Deep inside the city, your memory remains”. The final breakdown of the track also has a beautiful choir in the background followed by springing, beautiful violins, and a nice twinkly piano line that really puts a nice bow on the track as a whole.

The beginning guitar part and breakdown of Pravda are really damn good and I love how dreamy and nostalgic the song sounds. 

The lowkey production really shines here with all the instruments gently melding together and all the train sounds in the background give a real sense of nostalgia and leaving something behind but still keeping those memories with you. 

The final track, Hope, has positively beautiful piano like the rest of the album, with these really nice, dreamy, and somber notes being played. I used to hate the chorus but it works for this being the final track on the album having a real “swan song” vibe.

I do feel that the fifth verse and the final couple of choruses could have been trimmed out since the breakdown before the fifth verse gives a real feeling of finality to the album.

Overall, I really wanted to like his album more, and honestly, I feel like the album can and will grow on me. 

But with all the production choices, bad lyrics, and confusing overall choices on the record, it leaves Vampire Weekend with less of a grand hurrah explosion and more of a small little firework “explosion”.

However, it’s still a good record.

6/10 for me and thank you for reading! -w-