Vampire Weekend hasn't put an album out since "Modern Vampires Of The City" in 2013, but after five years of waiting, a new LP is almost here. For now there is still no set release date although what we do know from frontman Ezra Koenig is the LP's working title, "Mitsubishi Macchiato," and that it's "80% done but the last 20% is always the hardest."
Over Father's Day weekend, Vampire Weekend performed two shows at California's Libbey Bowl. This is where they gave us all a preview of the song "Flower Moon" off the new LP. Koenig sings "if the sun don't make things right, then it's gonna take a year, gonna take a year. Flower moon, sacred sign, Coca-Cola and red wine, now's the time to disappear, gonna take a year." He then goes on to explain that the song will need to feature Steve Lacy.
VAMPIRE WEEKEND NEW MUSIC PREVIEW - FLOWER MOON: Today at their second show at the Libbey Bowl in Ojai, CA, Vampir… https://t.co/jjdYX0rb8w— Team Vampire Weekend (@Team Vampire Weekend) 1529270511.0
Other than "Flower Moon" Koenig has said that the new LP will have a song called "Conversation" along with explaining that the new LP will be "a lil more springtime than the last one" and that "guitar's not dead," according to Stereo Gum. Another difference between the new and old albums is that this will be the first one without the help of Rostam Batmanglij. According to Batmanglij's tweet he left Vampire Weekend to pursue solo work, but he will continue to work with Koenig along with featuring on a few tracks on this new LP.
While we all wait for the release of "Mitsubishi Macchiato" there is still more work from Koenig that we can digest. During the five year gap between albums, he created, wrote and co-produced an anime series on Netflix titled "Neo Yokio." The series features voices from Jaden Smith and Jude Law among many more. "Neo Yokio" digs into the same topics as Vampire Weekend in a dystopian New York City, "where Washington Park is underwater, anti-bourgeoisie demons are on the loose, and members of high society are playing tennis matches on top of skyscrapers as so many other toil in slums below," as described by Pitchfork.
Vampire Weekend will also be Lollapalooza, the Fuji Rock Festival and the End Of The Road Festival. For tickets and dates you can visit their site.