US trio Vampire Weekend have unveiled two new songs ahead of the release of their fifth record in April. The band, who rose to fame with the Afropop-tinged indie-rock of their self-titled debut in 2008, announced details of a new album titled Only God Was Above Us earlier this week. It’s their first release since 2019’s Father Of The Bride, which itself was six years in the making. These fellas like to take their time, as frontman Ezra Koenig conceded in a chat with BBC 6Music this morning.
“This record, as most of our records do, took a while to make but that’s because we like to take time off in between and think about what we’re doing,” Koenig said. “I’m very excited about it. It was recorded all over the world – London, Tokyo, New York, LA, which was fun for us. It’s definitely getting into some new territory for us, it feels like Vampire Weekend but you’re hearing some tones and some vibes that we’ve never really explored. It’s been a lot of fun mixing some new sounds in.”
Speaking about their new song Capricorn, released alongside another new track titled Gen-X Cops today, Koenig said: “It’s not about one specific Capricorn in my life… it’s talking about Capricorn as the person who’s born at the end of the year and then immediately a new year starts. The lyric is “Capricorn, the year that you were born finished fast and the next one wasn’t yours.” Whether it’s about a Capricorn specifically or anybody who feels like they missed a moment or didn’t get in on the ground floor, that’s the vibe of the song.”
Watch the videos to the two new songs below:
