Vampire Weekend Announce New Album ‘Only God Was Above Us’

Vampire Weekend have announced that a new album, Only God Was Above Us, their first full-length record in five years, will arrive on April 5th via Columbia Records. The band recorded the 20th century New York City-inspired 10-track album in Manhattan, Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo. Ezra Koenig co-produced the record with the band's longtime…

Vampire Weekend have announced that a new album, Only God Was Above Us, their first full-length record in five years, will arrive on April 5th via Columbia Records.

The band recorded the 20th century New York City-inspired 10-track album in Manhattan, Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo.

Ezra Koenig co-produced the record with the band’s longtime collaborator Ariel Rechtshaid. Dave Fridmann and Emily Lazar took care of the mixing and mastering work, respectively.

Koenig wrote the lyrics for most the songs on Only God Was Above Us in 2019-2020 and subsequently worked with bandmates Chris Baio and Chris Tomson to flesh out the lyrical and melodic structures.

A press release describes the upcoming album as “direct yet complex, showing the band at once at its grittiest, and also at its most beautiful and melodic.”

The album’s cover artwork features photos taken in 1988 by Steven Siegel at a subway graveyard in New Jersey. It shows a man reading the May 1st, 1988 edition of the New York Daily News, which features the headline, “Only God Was Above Us,” in reference to the explosion on Aloha Airlines Flight 243.

Only God Was Above Us track list:

1. “Ice Cream Piano”2. “Classical”3. “Capricorn”4. “Connect”5. “Prep-School Gangsters”6. “The Surfer”7. “Gen-X Cops”8. “Mary Boone”9. “Pravda” 10. “Hope”