American Vampire #30

Mixing well-read indie rock with joyful, Afro-pop-inspired melodies and rhythms, Vampire Weekend grew from one of the first bands to be championed by music bloggers into a chart-topping, Grammy Award-winning act that helped define the sound of indie music in the late 2000s and 2010s. After establishing the foundations of their bright, intricate style with 2008's Vampire Weekend, the band soon became hugely successful; they're the first indie rock act to have two consecutive albums (2010's Contra and 2013's Modern Vampires of the City) enter the Billboard 200 at number one. With each release, Vampire Weekend's music grew more diverse, incorporating ska, hip-hop, and '80s pop influences that nevertheless complemented their signature style. Similarly, the band weathered the loss of founding member Rostam Batmanglij to deliver some of their most polished and ambitious work with 2019's Father of the Bride, their third chart-topper.

Father of the Bride is the upcoming fourth studio album by American indie rock band Vampire Weekend. It will be released on May 3, 2019 by Columbia Records, and is their first release on a major label. The album was preceded by three double singles: "Harmony Hall" / "2021", "Sunflower" / "Big Blue" and "This Life" / "Unbearably White". The album's release will mark the band's first project in nearly six years, following Modern Vampires of the City (2013), and the group's first album since multi-instrumentalist and producer Rostam Batmanglij's departure from the group. The album was primarily produced by Modern Vampires of the City collaborator Ariel Rechtshaid and lead singer Ezra Koenig, and features numerous external collaborators, including Danielle Haim, Steve Lacy, Dave Macklovitch of Chromeo. DJ Dahi, David Longstreth, BloodPop, Mark Ronson, and Batmanglij. The album is musically diverse, and heavily referential, contrasting dark and direct lyrics over a bright spring-time musical mood, with a stronger American influence than on the group's previous work.