Vampire Weekend – “Harmony Hall” & “2021”
Vampire Weekend have shared two new songs, “Harmony Hall” and “2021.” It’s the first we’re hearing from the band’s fourth album. After much speculation, the initials FOTB have been revealed to stand for Father Of The Bride. It also appears that the album artwork has been revealed at the end of each song’s YouTube stream.
In a Beats 1 interview, Koenig revealed that former member Rostam Batmanglij worked on “Harmony Hall” and one other song on the album, and Greg Leisz plays the guitar solo on “Harmony Hall.” The VW frontman also talked about how “2021” samples music that Japanese composer Haruomi Hosono made for Muji in the ’80s as background music for their stores. Ariel Rechtshaid co-produced both songs with Koenig.
In a different interview with NPR, Koenig name-dropped a few notables that worked on the pair of tracks: Dave Longstreth played guitar on “Harmony,” Danielle Haim is credited on the song, and Jenny Lewis sings the “boy” part in “2021.”
Last week, Koenig took to Instagram to reveal plans for a double album — 18 songs, about 59 minutes long — that will be out in April. “Harmony Hall” and “2021” are the first in a trio of two-song drops. The other pair of pairs will be released in the coming months.
FOTB is the band’s first album since 2013’s Modern Vampires Of The City, and their first without the full-time participation of Batmanglij. Revisit our timeline of what the band’s been up to since then.
Listen to them below.
“Harmony Hall” and “2021” are out now via Columbia.