Vampire Weekend. Photo by Michael Schmelling.
Vampire Weekend have officially announced a new album called Only God Was Above Us. The fifth full-length project from the New York rock band arrives on April 5 via Sony. Two new songs, "Capricorn" and "Gen-X Cops," will be released on February 16.
The reveal comes a few days after the band teased the album with a short video clip, a website update complete with a phone number to text, and a photograph taken by Steven Siegel of a junked New Jersey subway train.
Fans on Reddit deduced what the album's cover would be after looking through other photos in Siegel's series — the picture shows the inside of a subway car with a figure reading an issue of the Daily News with the headline "Only God Was Above Us." The quote is from a story about a flight from Hawaii that nearly ended in disaster after an explosion tore the roof off of the plane. See the photo that became the Only God Was Above Us cover art, and the tracklist, below.
Only God Was Above Us cover art and 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
Vampire Weekend released their fourth album Father of the Bride in 2019. According to a press release, the band's Ezra Koenig began writing lyrics for Only God Was Above Us the same year. The new album is "inspired and haunted by 20th century New York City," the release reads, and was recorded in Manhattan, Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo. Koenig and Ariel Rechtshaid produced the album, with mixing handled by Dave Fridmann and mastering by Emily Lazar.
On April 8, the band will play a show at the Moody Amphitheatre in Austin, Texas during the eclipse. RSVP for access to ticket presales here.
