Ezra Koenig
Artist Vampire Weekend performs at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival on June 13, 2014Getty images

It's been six years since Vampire Weekend released an album, the last one being Modern Vampires of the City. And on top of that with news of Rostam Batmanglij's exit from the band, things looked really grim. But then VW started to do show festival's and the fans were delighted when Ezra teased them with new songs and started to take questions about their upcoming album. In August 2018, when the band performed in Chicago's Lollapalooza festival, VW played five new songs and Ezra also revealed there that their upcoming album is complete, it was just that they "we're mastering it."

Now cut to 2019, Ezra Koenig took to Instagram and indulged the band's fanbase with fresh new content. "It's called "FOTB" (well those are the initials - that's a VW tradition) and it's 18 songs," said Ezra about the upcoming album. "It's a lot of songs but they all belong there,"  Ezra assures in his post. He also confessed that initially, he was thinking of doing a 23- song album which would be about "some human chromosome s**t," but then while doing the Spotify compilation for Mitsubishi Macchiato, he felt "we'd been scooped."

He addressed the most important curiosity too, "Whether it will be a double album?" -  "The vinyl will be double so…yes? It's about 59 minutes long."

But the best part about Ezra's post comes from here on. They will be releasing songs on online platforms for the next three month's or as Ezra puts it, "After all that waiting, you should have the general schedule: There will be three 2-song drops every month until the record is out."

Which means, for the next three months, VW will be releasing six songs, which means that in total there will be 18 songs that will be released, starting from next week, before the album hits shelves.

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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

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Not bad! Vampires! Not bad. And you know what? All those delays have been pardoned.