What happened next Vampire Weekend’s second chapter starts now

Without ignoring his intergral role in Vampire Weekend’s production and songwriting, Rostam Batmanglij won’t be a familiar name to every fan of the band. He’s taken a behind the scenes role, one that’s brought him huge production jobs on the side, but from his perspective he’s never been perceived to be at the wheel.

This appeared to be the motive behind his departure from the group, announced this week. His ability “needs to stand on its own,” he said in a statement. While diehard fans and industry-types can list Rostam’s work in a flash, picking his production out from imposters without a second thought, to others he’s just the guy on the side of the stage.

Make no mistake, this is an exciting time for Batmanglij. Production roles with Charli XCX and Ra Ra Riot are just the beginning, and new solo song ‘EOS’ marks his signature shifting pop as boundless.

Vampire Weekend fans, meanwhile, have every reason to be worried. Batmanglij’s partnership with frontman Ezra Koenig has taken on a lofty status. Koenig’s complex, reference-crammed lyrics are a smart companion to Batmanglij’s subtle twists, and it came to the fore on 2013 LP ‘Modern Vampires of the City’, one of the best albums of the decade so far.

Rostam’s departure isn’t quite as cut and run as it’s being made out (he’ll still have studio involvement and those Koenig collaborations won’t quit), but it still feels finite. Chances are Vampire Weekend were never going to match the drama, heart and New York-infused stamp of ‘Modern Vampires’. With this news, we’ll definitely hear nothing like it again.