I will say, despite my love for a lot of Vampire Weekend songs, their albums as a whole have never quite landed with me. Sadly, the same can be said for their latest full-length effort, Only God Was Above Us.
It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly five years since Father of the Bride was released, and perhaps that’s because they were still doing festival dates off of it fairly recently. I saw them live during this time, so maybe that’s what also satisfied my need for their music. In any case, this latest release reminds me a bit of Modern Vampires of the City, though there was definitely a deliberate twentieth century New York City approach to the sound. You don’t have to question me here, as plenty of interviews confirmed this fact with Ezra Koeing. Also in this interviews, I was made aware of the fact that this was technically the band’s first release as a trio. After Rostam left, Father of the Bride was approached as a solo project, but the rest of the band just toured with Koeing to perform it live. Weird.
Anyway, this record overall sounds just like Vampire Weekend, but there was such a laid-back slowness to it that I found it to be a struggle to get through. I think when people think of indie music, this is what would come to mind for them. Sure, there are rock elements in there, and pop, as well, but in general, there is a sleepy overtone to the whole thing. Even though plenty of songs were actually quite upbeat, I couldn’t help but walk away thinking that this whole album pretty much sounded like one long song. And maybe that was the vibe they were trying to capture in this twentieth century NYC theme. It played like a jazz album. That was the note I made for about 80 percent of the record. And while I can appreciate jazz (heck, I played in one at school!), it’s not something I want to listen to for any real length of time.
Even though it was one of the album’s singles, “Capricorn” might have been the most painful song on this album for me to listen to. Everything else had at least one or two redeeming qualities, but this one just totally missed the mark for me. “Prep School Gangsters” at least made me think of the songs off of Contra a little bit. For all of the songs that were passable here, the last four tracks off this record were actually really solid. These are the ones I can see myself coming back to, and I really hope they make it to the live setlist later this year. Though “Classical” wasn’t my favorite track, it was catchy, and it could also be really fun in a live setting.
“Gen Ex-Cops” was a very cool song, though somehow the chorus brought it down a bit. One surefire song that I thought was a hit from start to finish was “Mary Boone.” It was kind of all over the place, but it worked! And on a very different note, the closing track, “Hope,” really gave me the chills. It’s a long one, but there is a horn section in the middle that is truly incredible. It reminded me a lot of Arcade Fire’s “Ocean of Noise,” which is one of my favorite songs out there. That’s a good thing to be like in my ears! Of course, lyrically, Koeing is as strong as ever. I did have to laugh that this was the second time this year where I’ve heard the phrase, “fuck around and find out” on an album. What are the odds, really?
Anyway, longtime fans of the band should be pleased with this latest effort. And though it didn’t really hit a home run for me, I’m no less excited to see these guys again later this year.