Vampire Weekend returns this week with Father of the Bride, the band’s first studio album since 2013’s Modern Vampires of the City. The 18-track double album features production by the group’s frequent collaborator Ariel Rechtshaid, former band member Rostam Batmanglij, BloodPop®, DJ Dahi, and Steve Lacy of The Internet. Featured artists include Lacy, Danielle Haim, and Jenny Lewis, who contributes additional vocals to one of the previously released singles, “2021.”
Father of the Bride is Vampire Weekend’s first full-length release since the departure of Batmanglij. Lead singer Ezra Koenig named it after the 1991 Steve Martin movie of the same name. In addition to “2021,” the band has shared five other tracks ahead of the album’s release: “Harmony Hall,” “Sunflower,” “Big Blue,” “This Life,” and “Unbearable White.”
In a January 2019 interview with Rolling Stone, Koenig described Father of the Bride as “the life-goes-on record.” He explained:
On our first album, most of the songs were written in college, and it had a very youthful vibe. On the second and third records, the wide-eyed enthusiasm dimmed considerably. You see more of the world, and you’re more and more disheartened. But that trajectory can’t go on forever. After you make the black-and-white album cover with the songs about death, you can’t go deeper.
