Vampire Weekend Reveal Plans For Double Album, Releasing “Harmony Hall” And “2021” Next Week
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Vampire Weekend have finally unveiled some information about their long-awaited fourth studio album. In an Instagram post, Ezra Koenig said that the album’s title has the initials FOTB and that it’s 18 songs and 59 minutes long.
The first two songs will be out next week — they have the initials “hh” (for “>Harmony Hall“) and “2021” (presumably that last one is just … “2021”) — and they’ll be followed by two other two-song drops each month until the album is released, which means we’re looking at April for the whole thing, maybe May depending on how much they stretch it. (“Plans can change that’s the plan,” Koenig says in a note.)
He also addresses what some have seen as a long wait for the album by saying it hasn’t really felt like that long since 2013’s Modern Vampires Of The City. “This album didn’t really take any longer to write/record than MVOTC,” he wrote. “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.”
As to whether it counts as a double album at 18 songs and 5 -minutes long, Koenig says “…yes?”:
Here’s the full text of his message:
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
