Vampire Weekend announce first album in five years, Only God Was Above Us

Inspired and haunted by 20th century New York City, Only God Was Above Us was recorded all over the world, from Manhattan to Los Angeles to London and Tokyo, and was primarily produced by Koenig and longtime collaborator Ariel Rechtshaid.

The beginnings of Only God Was Above Us stretch back to 2019-2020, when Koenig wrote the bulk of the lyrics. The ten-track magnum opus is the product of five years spent refining, reworking and gradually shaping those lyrical and melodic structures, and follows the Grammy Award-winning Father of the Bride.

The title is lifted directly from the album artwork, comprised of photos taken from a subway graveyard in New Jersey in 1988 by Steven Siegel. In the album's cover, a man in a toppled subway car reads the May 1, 1988 edition of the New York Daily News — the cover story detailing the explosion that tore the roof off Aloha Airlines flight 243. The headline quotes a survivor: “ONLY GOD WAS ABOVE US.”

Tracklist:

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