Vampire Weekend Announce Double Album, with New Singles Out Next Week

It’s been almost six years since Vampire Weekend released Modern Vampires of the City. Fans have been patient, with all of the leaked working titles, with the announcement of founding member Rostam Batmanglij leaving the band, with last Summer’s festival sets—their first in years. Still, 2018 came and went, and Vampire Weekend didn’t drop any new music. But with their names on the Hangout and Firefly Music Festival lineups, we, once again, summoned our hope.

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Now, Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig has shared all of the details we’ve been waiting for. Not only will the beloved indie rock outfit be dropping their new album in 2019, but it will be a double album, 18 songs long. “It’s a lot of songs but they all belong there. (If you disagree, you can always say it was 6 songs too long & make a lil 12-song playlist version of it.),” Koenig wrote with his doughy sarcasm.

Check out the word from Ezra Koenig’s Instagram, below.

 

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To the fans:⁣ I know that 5-6 years is considered a long time between records. Personally, I think it’s a dignified pace befitting a band that’s already placed three albums in stores but everyone has their own sense of time. (I swear the time between 3 & 4 felt shorter to me than 2 & 3. I may be in the minority on this one.) ⁣ ⁣ This album didn’t really take any longer to write/record than MVOTC. We just took more time on the front end to chill. I’ll admit I may have stretched out the mixing/mastering process (aka THE END) a little bit cuz spending half the day with my family & half the day at Ariel’s is my ideal life-rhythm & it’s painful to say goodbye to that rhythm.⁣ ⁣ Many of you have been hungry for information and we’ve given you very little. I don’t like talking abt a project while in the middle of making it. I usually regret everything I say cuz it turns out to be wrong (so disregard anything I may have said in the past 5 years.) I thought abt making a recording diary to tide over the people leaving intense comments but…to me, the album IS the recording diary…man.⁣ ⁣ It’s called “FOTB” (well those are the initials – that’s a VW tradition) and it’s 18 songs. Picked the name a few years ago. At some point early on, the album drifted from the Mitsubishi Macchiato aesthetic. It was a helpful guiding principle tho. Working titles are important too.⁣ ⁣ It’s a lot of songs but they all belong there. (If you disagree, you can always say it was 6 songs too long & make a lil 12-song playlist version of it.) At first, I wanted to make two 23-song albums on some human chromosome shit but then 23&me started doing Spotify playlists and I don’t know…felt we’d been scooped.⁣ ⁣ Is it a double album? The vinyl will be double so…yes? It’s about 59 minutes long. We can talk more abt that later – if u care. To me, it’s just FOTB.⁣ ⁣ Anyway, we’re gonna start releasing music next week. After all that waiting, you should have the general schedule:⁣ ⁣ -There will be three 2-song drops every month until the record is out. 1. hh/2021 2. s/bb 3. tl/uw. (plans can change that’s the plan)⁣ ⁣ Thank you for ur patience,⁣ Ezra

A post shared by Ezra Koenig (@arze) on Jan 17, 2019 at 1:05pm PST

For those of you who didn’t get through the lengthy caption, here’s the brief: Vampire Weekend will start releasing songs next week, with two song drops every month until the album is out. Their new album bears the initials FOTB, which has already spurred a storm of speculation. What does FOTB stand for? Fear of the Beast? Father of the Bride? First Owl Then Bear? Considering Vampire Weekend’s earlier, working title was “Mitsubishi Macchiato”, there’s simply no telling what FOTB could stand for.

Though Vampire Weekend hasn’t announced the official release date for FOTB, we think that date should be revealed soon, perhaps after the first round of singles. For those of you who just can’t wait to see when the Vampire Weekend tour is announced, we suggest grabbing your tickets for either the Firefly or Hangout Music Festival, where the band will definitely be showing off their new material.