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Vampire Weekend Announce New Album ‘FOTB’, New Music Dropping Next Week

Finally. Finally. FINALLY.

After what felt like endless months of teasing, red herrings and false hope, Vampire Weekend have confirmed that their new album will be released this year and they’ll be dropping brand new music next week.

Taking to Instagram, frontman Ezra Koenig wrote a long post explaining why the album took so long to make, why he didn’t feel like it felt that long and gave some insight into how they plan to release the music.

“I know that 5-6 years is considered a long time between records,” he wrote. “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.)” You are, Koenig.

“It’s called “FOTB” (well those are the initials – that’s a VW tradition) and it’s 18 songs,” he wrote elsewhere in the post. “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.”

Here’s the best part – according to Koenig, new music ⁣is gonna be ours from next week and was even generous enough to give us the release schedule.



“There will be three 2-song drops every month until the record is out,” he wrote. “1. hh/2021 2. s/bb 3. tl/uw. (plans can change that’s the plan)⁣.”

We can only assume that the initials represent the names of the two songs that’ll be dropping each month. On top of that, judging by the three numbers he gave us, we could expect this album in April or May. However, according to Spina representative of the band says that there’s no release date.

Naturally, Koenig has kept an air of mystery around the album or the songs’ full titles, but that’s okay. Catch us bumping Contra on repeat until we finally get this new music.

Read Koenig’s full post below.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

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

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