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Music

This Vampire Weekend Teaser Is Pretty Bonkers

Two hours of guitar loops promise two new tracks from the band’s fourth album, which has the initials “FOTB” and is out this spring.
JT
Chicago, US
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Last week, Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig shared new details of his band’s fourth album and first since 2013’s Modern Vampires of the City. In an Instagram post, he unveiled that the forthcoming double LP is set to feature 18 songs, is mysteriously initialed “FOTB.,” and will be out in the spring, after releasing two songs a month for three months. Kinda confusing, but that’s the deal. Today, the first of these single releases was announced alongside a bonkers two-hour video of guitar harmonies from new track “Harmony Hall.” Out Thursday, the song will be released along with “2021.” Watch the relaxing, 120-minute teaser below.

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The video boasts two intriguing graphics captioned “The Sacred Tree of the Sephiroth,” which look a lot like the Tree of Life diagrams used in Jewish Kabbalah. In other words, it seems we’re getting some really heady nerd stuff as “FOTB” continues its years-long rollout. It’s been six years since Vampire Weekend’s last album and “FOTB,” which was originally titled Mitsubishi Macchiato, is also the first release following the departure of multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij. The upcoming effort is also set to have the band reunite with Modern Vampires of the City co-producer Ariel Rechtshaid.

In a 2017 Entertainment Weekly interview, Koenig claimed the part of the album’s approach was inspired by Kacey Musgraves. "I’m the type of person who has spent hours poring over the avant-garde poetic lyrics of certain songwriters, and there was something that felt so good [about how] from the first verse, you knew who was singing, who they were singing to, what kind of situation they were in,” He said of seeing her live for the first time. Koenig added, “After the show I realized there’s not a ton of Vampire Weekend songs where you could listen to the first verse and immediately answer the question of who’s singing and who are they singing to.”

Below check Koenig’s recent Instagram post for more details on Vampire Weekend’s new album.