VAMPIRE WEEKEND Vinyl & CDs

Review: After an extended hiatus of nigh-on five years, Vampire Weekend has finally got around to recording a new album. Only their third studio set in total, Only God Was Above Us sees the trio muse on the weight of history - their own as much as anything else - while fretting about what lies ahead for the human race. Musically, much of what's on offer is densely layered and impressively loud, with loads of intricate musical detail (check the jazz horns and mad stereo panning of 'Classical' and the string-laden, White Album-era Beatles nostalgia of 'Capricorn') working in unison with their attractive, harmonic, saucer-eyed vocals. It's a bit of a triumph all told and one that proves that there's plenty of life yet in Vampire Weekend.

Review: "Father Of The Bride", Vampire Weekend's first album for six long years, has been receiving praise across the board from critics. It's been variously described as a "modern California pop masterpiece", a "scrapbook of brilliant ideas" and "the band's magnum opus". To our ears, it's certainly joyous and celebratory, with the acclaimed New York band wrapping their usual punchy-indie pop in subtle and not so subtle nods towards everything from Flamenco and Country music, to mournful piano ballads, excitable electronic indie-dance and 1960s baroque pop. In other words, it's a giddy collection of inventive, enjoyable songs that boasts the same eclectic, anything-goes swagger as the Beatles "White Album" or other similar wide-ranging sets.

Review: You want ideas? Vampire Weekend have ideas. They've also got wit, imagination, an eye for lyrical detail and an ear for musical adventure.
Most importantly Vampire Weekend have tunes. Oh yes, they've got tunes. Dealing in genres the band have dubbed 'Cape Cod Kwassa
Kwassa' and 'Upper West Side Soweto', 'Vampire Weekend' is a breath of fresh air, both musically and lyrically, with this New York band
endeavouring to make music that is anything but straight ahead rock. Straight ahead? As if. This is indie-rock that isn't indie-rock, a joyously
exuberant carnival of melody and rhythm. Strings. Organs. Afro-funk guitars. Courtly 18th century harpsichord. A bit of post-punk (maybe Franz
Ferdinand crossed with the Bhundu Boys?). Lyrics about grammar and architecture and preferred bus routes and the British Imperial origins of
American preppie fashion. With fleet-footed pizzazz Vampire Weekend deploy all these to craft a tinglingly refreshing sound. Anyone for brainy
party music? Take 'Oxford Comma', a spartan funk charmer that references a piece of grammar (you can look it up). Then there's the band's
debut, limited edition UK single, 'Mansard Roof'. Said roof is an architectural style that offers extra living space in an attic. The lyrics then go on:
'the Argentines collapse in defeat, the admiralty surveys the remnants of the fleet'. You want world music? That is, music of the world? You want
Vampire Weekend. You can throw yourself around the moshpit to 'Campus'. You can imagine what happened to characters in recent single
'A-Punk' before they ended up in the song ('Johanna drove slowly across the city/the Hudson River all filled with snow/she spied the ring on his
honour's finger/oh-oh-oh'). You can shed a tear, then shed your clothes, at the hymnal-meets-tribal thunder of 'I Stand Corrected' or the epic 'M79',
which is named after a Manhattan bus route and forms the heart of the album.