Since leaving the cozy confines of Vampire Weekend last year to go it alone out in the big, cold, scary world; Rostam Batmanglij has been quite busy. Last year, he notched credits as a songwriter and a producer for both Frank Ocean’s Blonde and Solange’s A Seat at the Table, two of 2016’s most-highly-praised albums. He also released the full-length album collaboration with Hamilton Leithauser, I Had A Dream That You Were Mine.
But now, finally…Batmanglij is set to release Half-Light, his proper solo debut album as…Werewolf Weekday! No? His first album as…as Mummy Federal Holiday?! Er, what’s that? Oh, he’s going by just Rostam now?!? Yeah, that’s smart; that’s way less hack than that crap I was just saying.
As can be inferred by its nifty hyphen, the word “half-light” has a double meaning (double-meaning?), in that it can refer to either dawn or dusk. Upon learning the double-meaning, Rostam promptly came to retroactively-realize how much those times of day were reflected in his lyrics. “I think what draws me to dawn and dusk as a songwriter is that those are the moments where we feel change deepest in a day,” he stated. “Those are the moments where I seem to experience the onset of a realization and the strongest feelings of optimism about the future. With this record, I’m trying to share some of those realizations and some of that optimism.”
Half-Light, in all of its hyphenated-glory, is out September 8 via Nonesuch. You can Head-here to pre-order it. Then, check out the album’s track-list and cover-art, right after you let the optimism flow through your veins by watching the feelings-strengthening lyric-video for lead-single “Bike Dream,” down-below.
Half-Light Track-List:
01. Sumer
02. Bike Dream
03. Half-Light ft. Kelly Zutrau
04. Thatch Snow
05. Wood
06. Never Going To Catch Me
07. Don’t Let It Get To You
08. I Will See You Again
09. Hold You ft. Angel Deradoorian
10. When
11. Rudy
12. Warning Intruders
13. EOS
14. Gwan
15. Don’t Let It Get To You (Reprise)