Alt-rock band Vampire Weekend has turned in iconic albums: their self-titled release, “Contra,” “Modern Vampires of the City” and “Father of the Bride.” The last two of these were especially important for the band, bringing them Grammys for Best Alternative Music Album in 2014 and 2020, respectively. On top of that, “Father of the Bride” earned the band their first nominations outside of the alternative category: Best Rock Song (“This Life”) and, most importantly, Album of the Year. Now the band is back with their fifth studio album, “Only God Was Above Us,” and with this new release, there’s potential for another big Grammy night for the band.
This new album comes four years after the success of “Father of the Bride,” which topped the Billboard 200 and was eventually certified gold in the US. While it managed an Album of the Year nomination, however, it wasn’t necessarily the band’s most beloved collection, earning an 82 on Metacritic, two points lower than “Modern Vampires of the City.” This time around, though, the band is at their most acclaimed. “Only God Was Above Us” has an 88 on Metacritic as of this writing, which is not only their highest score, but also one of the highest of the year.
This type of success often can be indicative of an upcoming win at the Grammys. Other high-scorers on Metacritic like Wet Leg’s self-titled, Boygenius’s “The Record” and Fiona Apple’s “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” have also been the most acclaimed albums in their Grammy lineups and ended up winning. It seems like alternative voters, perhaps more than any other bloc of voters, really take critical acclaim into consideration, so an album with an 88 score would be heavily competitive in any year, especially one made by a band that has won this category twice before.
“Only God Was Above Us” does have one big barrier, though, and that’s sales. While the album is their most acclaimed, it is also their least commercially successful, at least in its first week. The record failed to crack the top 20 of the Billboard 200, which is a stark decline from their last three albums, all of which debuted at number-one. Granted, a big reason could be that, since their last album, Billboard has eliminated concert bundles from its chart methodology. Those bundles had boosted their sales figures before, so perhaps the more modest peak for this new album isn’t much to worry about.
Still, it’s going to be interesting to see if this relative lack of commercial appeal hurts their chances, especially knowing that previous winners like Beck, Boygenius and Fiona Apple all had top-10 albums. This might also be an issue in crossing over to the general field, as limited sales do suggest less accessibility. And the alternative albums that have gotten into the general categories over the past few years have been strong sellers. There are exceptions though: Bon Iver’s “I, I” peaked at number-26, and even though it failed to win any awards, it still got into two general field categories: Record of the Year for “Hey, Ma” and Album of the Year.
“Only God Was Above Us” will ultimately be an interesting case to analyze. If it gets an Album of the Year nom, it might show us just how strong the alternative voting bloc is, and just how much critical acclaim is crucial for albums from certain genres. If not, then it reinforces the idea that sometimes popularity can triumph over acclaim because certain popular artists are just more visible than others. In the meantime, you can easily call the band our Best Alternative Album frontrunner; that is, of course, until we see what another two-time category winner has in store for us.
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