Having just departed Australia after touring the nation with the successful Big Day Out 2013, and a snappy sideshow at Sydney’s The Metro, Vampire Weekend have returned home to announce the details of their third studio album.
The quartet took a slightly sneaky approach to deliver the news of the follow-up to 2010’s Contra, firstly by tweeting a cryptic message to fans to check out the classifieds section of the New York Times. As Pitchfork points out, there was an entry in the ‘Lost and Found’ column advertising, “Modern Vampires of the City, May 7, 2013.”
Turns out that it’s exactly the same date that the band’s label, XL Recordings, had officially listed for the band’s latest studio effort, later confirming that Modern Vampires of the City is the title of the new record.
Once fans and American press had made the connection, the band revealed the artwork and tracklisting for their new album on their official website, along with dates for a tour of their homeland, with dates through March to May, taking in April’s desert music festival Coachella.
In an interview with Q Magazine that appears this month, frontman Ezra Koenig described the new material on Modern Vampires of the City as “darker and more organic” and “very much the last of a trilogy.” Namely rounding off their 2008 self-titled debut and 2010’s Contra.
“[The new song] suggests that their forthcoming album will explore new territory, coming across as more spacious and measured than their usual tight pop songs.”
The LP was recorded and co-produced by Ariel Rechtshaid (whose credits includes work with Blood Orange, Major Lazer, and Glasser) and Vampire Weekend’s own multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij.
The Sydney audience at the Metro were also treated to a dash of new material during Vampire Weekend’s sideshow, with our Tone Deaf reviewer wrote included “the first ever airing of ‘Arms’, which suggests that their forthcoming album will explore new territory, coming across as more spacious and measured than their usual tight pop songs.” Which, from a glance of the tracklisting, has changed to the fuller title of ‘Everlasting Arms’.
Adding that, “few bands sketch out such a vivid, well-realised world, all preppy designer clothes, exotic drinks, architectural flourishes, and Ivy League college detail. There’s something precious about them sure, but who needs grit when you’ve got tunes like this?”
It’s the latest in album news in what looks like to be a very healthy year for new releases. Including My Bloody Valentine melting the internet with the release of their first new album in 22 years, along with new details of the latest from The Strokes’ fifth LP, the first taste of the swathe of new material from Pond, David Bowie’s first new album in a decade, and Daft Punk’s long-awaited fourth studio album, their first after switching labels to Columbia Records.
Then let’s not forget new records due soon from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Drones, and The Knife’s 98 minute opus, Shaking The Habitual.
You can view the album artwork and tracklisting for Vampire Weekend’s new album below:
Modern Vampires of the City Tracklist:
01. Obvious Bicycle
02. Unbelievers
03. Step
04. Diane Young
05. Don’t Lie
06. Hannah Hunt
07. Everlasting Arms
08. Finger Back
09. Worship You
10. Ya Hey
11. Hudson
12. Young Lion
