Only God Was Above Us, the fifth studio album — and first in five years — from Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, Chris Baio and Chris Tomson, is due out April 5 from Columbia Records. Inspired and haunted by 20th Century New York City, the album was recorded all over the world, from Manhattan to Los Angeles to London and 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. Watch the album trailer below…
The beginnings of Only God Was Above Us stretch back to 2019-2020, when Koenig wrote the bulk of the lyrics. The 10-track album is the product of five years spent refining, reworking and gradually shaping those lyrical and melodic structures to take Vampire Weekend to a new creative peak. The album is direct yet complex, showing the band at once at its grittiest, and also at its most beautiful and melodic.
Only God Was Above Us will be available digitally, and physically on CD, standard black vinyl, limited edition clear vinyl on the band’s webstore, and with an alternate album cover available exclusively at Independent retailers. Pre-order here.
The tracklist is as follows:
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, TX at the Moody Amphitheater at noon on April 8th during the historic total eclipse. Tickets for this special event go on sale on February 13th at 10am CT. Pre-sale and general information can be found at www.vampireweekend.com.
