Way back in August, Ezra Koenig let fans at Lollapalooza know Vampire Weekend was done with their long-awaited fourth album. It was joyous news; however, five months later, and we haven't so much as heard new music from the band. (In fact, it's been five years, eight months, and 27 days since they released Modern Vampires of the City, but who's counting?)
On Thursday (January 15), the frontman gave fans an in-depth update about LP4 on his personal Instagram account, and let us know we can expect new music from the band next week (!!!).
Read the full, lengthy post below:
To the fans:
âŁI know that 5-6 years is considered a long time between records. Personally, I think itâs a dignified pace befitting a band thatâs 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.) âŁâŁ
This album didnât really take any longer to write/record than MVOTC. We just took more time on the front end to chill. Iâll 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 Arielâs is my ideal life-rhythm & itâs painful to say goodbye to that rhythm.âŁâŁ
Many of you have been hungry for information and weâve given you very little. I donât 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 butâŠto me, the album IS the recording diaryâŠman.
âŁâŁItâs called âFOTBâ (well those are the initials - thatâs a VW tradition) and itâs 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.
âŁâŁItâs 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 donât knowâŠfelt weâd been scooped.âŁâŁ
Is it a double album? The vinyl will be double soâŠyes? Itâs about 59 minutes long. We can talk more abt that later â if u care. To me, itâs just FOTB.âŁâŁ
Anyway, weâre gonna start releasing music next week. After all that waiting, you should have the general schedule:
âŁâŁ-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 thatâs the plan)âŁâŁ
Thank you for ur patience,⣠Ezra
Although there's still no clear release date for FOTB, it seems like a 2019 release date is inevitable, and in the meantime we will have new songs to whet our appetites. YAY!
Check out Koenig's post below.
Photo: Getty Images