Vampire Weekend’s New Single Asserts That Zion Doesn’t Love You

I think of Vampire Weekend as a disaffected art rock band, but do they have a spiritual side? Their latest single, “Ya Hey” (a pun on one of the Jewish names for G-d, Yahweh) contains quite a few spiritual lyrics, like “Zion doesn’t love you/and Babylon don’t love you,” and refers to whoever “you” is as a “saint.”

The video is deliberately oblique, just showing people (mostly wearing muslin wraps that look like togas, or standing in front of the Chrysler Building) opening bottles of champagne. The refrain, “You won’t even say your name/only I am that I am” is another G-d reference, which lead singer and Hebrew school alum Ezra Koenig would definitely know. It’s an interesting song, but the occasional random Chipmunk voices in the background are pretty annoying.