Three batches of songs will be shared in the run up to its release

Vampire Weekend have revealed that their forthcoming record will be an 18-song double album, with the first two songs released next week.

Frontman Ezra Koenig announced on Instagram today (January 17) that the band plans to release “three 2-song drops every month until the record is out,” starting next week.

The New York group’s first album in nearly five years is no longer titled ‘Mitsubishi Macchiato’, Koenig wrote, but is instead comprised of the initials “FOTB” with an exact title to be announced at a later date.

Koenig also included what are presumably the initials of the songs that are being shared over the next three months: “1. hh/2021″ 2. “s/bb” 3. “tl/uw.”

In the post, Koenig wrote: “This album didn’t really take any longer to write/record than MVOTC [‘Modern Vampires Of The City’]. 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 [Rechtshaidis – the band’s producer] my ideal life-rhythm & it’s painful to say goodbye to that rhythm.⁣

Although the band hasn’t confirmed a release date for ‘FOTB’, our calculations from Koenig’s song batch schedule point to a date sometime in March or April. However, a representative for the band has told Spin that there is no release date yet.

‘FOTB’ marks Vampire Weekend’s first album without founding member Rostam Batmanglij, who left the band in 2016. He said in a note at the time of his departure, “My identity as a songwriter and producer, I realized, needs to stand on its own.”

Meanwhile, the band’s label boss said in December 2018 that ‘FOTB’ “will be your favourite record next year”.

Columbia Records’ Ferdy Unger-Hamilton told Music Week: “The record’s brilliant, it’s going to go really well” before mentioning that the band will “do some shows.”