Everyone’s trying to guess what Vampire Weekend’s ‘FOTB’ album title stands for

Vampire Weekend are coming back, everybody! A long and gruelling six years after their last album release ‘Modern Vampires of the City’, it’s now been confirmed that 2019 will indeed be the year that the New York trio will bestow us with album number four.

Frontman Ezra Koenig thanked VW fans for their patience yesterday (January 17) in a lengthy Instagram post in which he also confirmed that the band’s next record is indeed finished and ready to launch. Seemingly set to be released in full in April, Koenig also revealed the band’s plans to stage three two-song drops every month starting next week, giving fans a hefty preview of the 18-track album.

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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

Koenig’s post (see above) is certainly a lot of information to process after many years of inactivity and speculation. And while we try to contain our excitement and bide time until the arrival of the first new single next week, plenty of fans have already turned their attention to partaking in a little guessing game in regards to the title of Vampire Weekend’s fourth album.

Thought it initially carried the title ‘Mitsubishi Macchiato’, Koenig said that the new album’s title will now feature the initials ‘FOTB’. “That’s a VW tradition,” he teased. “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.⁣”

What could ‘FOTB’ stand for, then? It’s a question that’s currently doing the rounds online, with this guessing game drumming up the most interest in deciphering a four-letter album acronym since Kanye got his fans offering suggestions for what ‘TLOP’ might stand for back in 2016 (and one guy actually guessed it was ‘The Life of Pablo’, too).

Will anyone correctly guess what the new Vampire Weekend album is called before release day (we’re hoping for ‘Frank Ocean’s Tickle Bonanza’ ourselves)? Take a look at some of these efforts and decide for yourself…

https://twitter.com/markhoppus/status/1086100407883988992

Possible names for the new Vampire Weekend album “FOTB” @arzE

Fajitas On The Beach
Fire O’er The Bluff
Former Osteopath Theorizes Bursitis
Fighting Over The Bread
Fanatical Oedipal Thought Bubble
Finally, Other Timeless Bangers
Flaming Octopus Throws Boy
Falling Out of The Blue

— Mary Miller (@missmarymiller) January 18, 2019

Fresh Out The Box

— Moe Chedda (@RealMoeChedda) January 17, 2019

FOTB?
freak out to bagpipes
fuck off to brian’s
feeling optimistic tell bossman
flip over the bed
free oatmeal terrific breakfast
friend of the ball
fangs of tricky bats

— big baby (@sydney_galaxy) January 18, 2019

i’ve been readin vampire weekend’s new album fotb as “fall out the boy” in my head

— paddington's aunt lusi (@ilovelusi) January 18, 2019

guys i figured out what fotb means

Fpizza
Oparty
T
B

— sam? (@bleachermusic) January 18, 2019

https://twitter.com/NoahBlume/status/1086117042938413057

https://twitter.com/ColinMiksiewicz/status/1086147362190385152

fEight oMinute tCape bCod

— rosemarie™ (@ratofthecity) January 17, 2019

Also I'm pretty convinced #FOTB stands for flight of the bumblebee just sayin

— deirdre ? (@deirdeirdredre) January 18, 2019

Hey @arzE. Why is your new album titled "Fuck Off Todd Barry"?! #FOTB

— Todd Barry (@toddbarry) January 18, 2019

What do you think the new Vampire Weekend will be called? Answers on a postcard (or on Facebook and Twitter, preferably).