Consumer Guide Album

Vampire Weekend: Only God Was Above Us [Columbia, 2024]
The intricacy of both their music and their thematics are evidence of this NY-to-LA quartet's well-manicured skill set. Absolutely they rock; absolutely they think as well. About what they do so remains not so much murky as diplomatically inexplicit, pretty much unacknowledged when they get down to cases only somehow they never quite do. The first words Ezra Koenig utters here are "Fuck the world," but that's a feint. They've always assumed that their brief was to make said world a better place. Problem is, now it may just be falling apart instead and that worries them plenty. "Your consciousness is not my problem/And I hope you know your brain's not bulletproof," they declare intricately, not least because they're smart enough to be concerned about their own brains as well. Good luck to them, and to all of us. Here's hoping celebrations of musical intelligence will help a little, because that much and not a lot else they're clearly still good for. A-