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Mar 02, 2021 By Joey Arnone

Rostam (formerly of Vampire Weekend) has announced that his second solo album, Changephobia, will be out June 4 on his own label Matsor Projects (via Secretly Distribution). He has also shared a new song from the album titled “4Runner.” Check out the song, along with the album’s tracklist and cover art, below.

Rostam speaks about the meaning behind the album’s title in a press release: “A few years ago I met a stranger on a park bench, somehow I found myself opening up to him; revealing recent changes in my life that had altered its course, and he said, ‘Change is good. Go with it.’ I realized that I had never heard that sentiment expressed before. Transphobia, biphobia, homophobia—these words hold a weight of threat, and it occurred to me that the threats they bare—the fears they describe—are rooted in a fear of change: a fear of the unknown, of a future that is not yet familiar, one in which there is a change of traditions, definitions, and distributions of power. So gender, too, was on my mind while creating this album, as I came to find myself writing about love and connection but not wanting to place relationships in a gendered context. This collection of songs is not celebrating a fear of change. Rather, it’s the opposite. It’s about who we are capable of becoming if we recognize these fears in ourselves and rise above them.”

Previously released songs from the album include “Unfold You” (which was one of our Songs of the Week) and “These Kids We Knew.” Rostam’s debut solo album, Half-Light, was released in 2017 via Nonesuch.

Changephobia Tracklist: 1. These Kids We Knew 2. From the Back of a Cab 3. Unfold You 4. 4Runner 5. Changephobia 6. Kinney 7. Bio18 8. [interlude] 9. To Communicate 10. Next Thing 11. Starlight

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