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About

Genius Annotation

“Hannah Hunt”, according to Ezra Koenig’s interview with Carrie Battan of Pitchfork, is “named after a girl the singer sat next to in a Buddhism class in college (who also happens to be a vocalist in the San Francisco indie pop group Dominant Legs).” Ezra “always thought she had a great name.” At Bonnaroo 2014, Ezra prefaced the song by stating, “this is a song about a girl from San Francisco,“ supporting this theory.

On Vampire Weekend’s Reddit AMA, Ezra Koenig said this song could have the same narrator as “Run.” This song would then narrate the sad aftermath of that couple’s elopement foreshadowed in “Run” (“Every dollar counts, and every morning hurts/We mostly work to live, until we live to work”).

Ezra Koenig has described himself as a “name fetishist.” He could have chosen any name, but he chose to name the song after that particular one. “Hunt” is a surname that has been associated with the American upper class for a long time, due to oil billionaire H.L. Hunt and his numerous offspring. Hannah is a Jewish name. In the Old Testament, Hannah is the mother of Samuel, and she symbolizes self-sacrifice in the name of faith. It might be a stretch, but maybe Ezra is not just singing about a girl. Maybe he means religion, too, and since he himself is Jewish he would be parting essentially with that religion, expressing his disbelief in those relationships, the one he had with Hannah and the one he had with religion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-DiswtMKII

Like most songs on Modern Vampires of the City, this is a song about being sad. Note the move from the plant growth in the first verse to the death of the relationship, comparable to the rose growths in “Horchata:”

Those palms and firs that grew in your garden
Are falling down and nearing the rosebeds
The roots are shooting up through the tool shed
Those lips and teeth that asked how my day went
Are shouting up through cracks in the pavement

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

Who, if anyone, is Hannah? Who does she represent?
Genius Answer

“Hannah Hunt”, according to Ezra Koenig’s interview with Pitchfork, is named after a girl he knew in college—she sat next to him in an Indo-Tibetan-Buddhism class.

The song isn’t necessarily about her, but Ezra has mentioned that he “always thought she was cool, and always thought that she had such a great name”. It’s possible that the surname “Hunt” is intended to connect the title character to American old-money families and the upper class in general. (The oil billionaire H.L. Hunt and his numerous offspring are collectively one of the richest families in America)

Hannah Hunt (whose name is actually pronounced HAWN-ah Hunt, rather then the more common HAN-ah) now sings indie pop for the San Franciscan group Dominant Legs.

Is "Hannah Hunt" by Vampire Weekend a sequel to "Run"?
Genius Answer

On Vampire Weekend’s Reddit AMA, Ezra Koenig mentioned that this song could have the same narrator as “Run.” This song would then narrate the sad aftermath of that couple’s elopement foreshadowed in “Run” (“Every dollar counts, and every morning hurts/We mostly work to live, until we live to work”).

On the other hand Hannah Hunt is definitely first and foremost a stand-alone work, (Koenig has mentioned that its “among the oldest songs on this album”, with parts of it having been written as early as 2006).

So while the relationship between “Hannah Hunt” and “Run” isn’t really anywhere near as straight-forward as prequel/sequel, there are definitely thematic and character similarities to explore.

When was "Hannah Hunt" recorded?
Genius Answer

Rostam revealed that Ezra worked on the song on his own before the Contra sessions and that it was reworked for MVOTC.

According to Rostam, the original version “sounded kinda like ‘say it right’ by Nelly Furtado.”

Credits
Written By
Drum and Synth Programming
Bass Guitar
Guitarist
Piano
Release Date
May 14, 2013
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