We’re now just eight days away from the release of Only God Was Above Us, Vampire Weekend’s first album in five years. And as of today, the band has shared 40% of the album as advance singles. After dropping “Capricorn” and “Gen-X Cops” on us in February, they slid “Classical” our way in March. Now the public gets one more preview track.
“Mary Boone” is slotted near the end of the tracklist, and like the rest of the album, it’s inspired by late 20th century New York City. In this case, the title character is a real-life New York art dealer who was important enough in the 1980s to be dubbed “The New Queen Of The Art Scene” on the cover of New York magazine. Musically, the vibe here is sort of like Modern Vampires power ballad “Ya Hey” but with a big clattering downtempo drumbeat as heard on late-’90s electronic hits by Moby and Primitive Radio Gods. “Oh my love/ Was it all in vain?/ We always wanted money/ Now the money’s not the same,” Ezra Koenig sings. “In a quiet moment at the theater/ I could hear the train/ Deep inside the city/ Your memory remains.”
In the track’s official visualizer, Vampire Weekend pal Despot drives from New Jersey to NYC through the Lincoln Tunnel. Watch below.
Only God Was Above Us is out 4/5 on Columbia.
