“Flower Moon” by Vampire Weekend (Ft. Steve Lacy)
This song is titled after the “Flower Moon”, which is the name given to the full moon which occurs during the month of May. From the narrators’ perspective, this is a “cursed” event which may “take a year” for him to recuperate from. He goes on to state the setting that he is in is “the right place, wrong time” and “another night at the borderline”. And overall he expresses a feeling of dread due to being under “the sway of the Flower Moon”.
As can be deduced from reading above, this track is heavily-symbolic. And we are going to go out on a limb here and say that the artists use the term “Flower Moon” as being synonymous with falling in love. The “Flower Moon” derived its name (via Native Americans) from being recognized as the advent of the Spring season. And Spring, as we know, has also long been representative of love.
So in that regard, the singer is damning the “Flower Moon” because as a result of it he has once again fallen in love. And “if the sun don’t make things right”, as in him waking up and coming to the light, “then it’s going to take a year” for him to recuperate from being smitten by Cupid’s arrow.
Accordingly, the implication is that he has fallen in love before, suffered as a result and is now frightened at the prospect of doing so again. But now due to “a shift in weight” and “a simple twist in fate”, it is “much too late” for him to prevent falling in love again. And again, it should be noted that, in a literal sense, a full moon literally rising has nothing to do with “fate”.
Facts about “Flower Moon”
- This track’s release date fell on 3 May 2019. It was released by Spring Snow and Columbia Records with the rest of Father of the Bride, Vampire Weekend’s fourth album. FYI, Father of the Bride is the first album by Vampire Weekend to feature guest vocalists. And along with Californian Steve Lacy, the other guest singer is Danielle Haim.
- Vampire Weekend previewed “Flower Moon” back on 17 June 2018 during their show in Ojai, California.
- The track was written by Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig along with songwriters Sam Gendel and Ariel Rechtshaid.
- Ariel Rechtshaid also worked alongside Ezra Koenig in producing the song. Steve Lacy is also credited with contributing additional production to this track.
