Today, Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend took to Instagram to announce official details about the band’s highly anticipated album, which, per the sweet yet arch note, has the initials “FOTB.” The announcement also revealed that the album will contain 18 songs and run for 59 minutes. Koenig writes that at one point he thought about doing two 23-track albums but that those plans fizzled because “23&me started doing Spotify playlists and I don’t know…felt we’d been scooped.⁣”

According to the announcement, there will be “three 2-song drops every month until the record is out,” and that new music will begin to premiere next week. That would put the album on a timeline to be released sometime in March or April, but a representative for the band said in an email to Spin that there is no release date yet. Koenig also included what are presumably the initials of the songs dropping over the next three months: 1. “hh/2021” 2. “s/bb” 3. “tl/uw.”

Hopefully, they are as “slick,” “sexy,” “very cool and def good” as we have been promised.

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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

A post shared by Ezra Koenig (@arze) on Jan 17, 2019 at 1:05pm PST