Rostam Covers Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”

Last year, artist/producer Rostam Batmanglij announced his amicable departure from Vampire Weekend. That same year, he released a collaborative album with Walkmen’s Hamilton Leithauser, titled I Had a Dream That You Were Mine. Since announcing that he would no longer be a part of the once famous, Ezra Koenig led indie rock outfit, Rostam has been busy building up his production discography. From Solange’s A Seat at the Table, to Frank Ocean’s Blonde, to HAIM’s Something to Tell You, Rostam has become the company of many talented individuals.

Now, just a few months after dropping his first solo effort Half-Light, Rostam dropped by the SiriusXMU studios to perform a stripped-down set. One of the show’s standout moments was when Rostam covered Bob Dylan’s classic song “Like a Rolling Stone“. You can listen to the audio of Rostam’s raw yet nimble performance below.

The stripped-down performance of Dylan’s 1965 classic is a perfect display of Rostam’s ability to deconstruct perfectly built tracks and rearrange them to achieve new, underutilized platitudes. We saw Rostam achieve this same feat with Hamilton Leithauser last year when they reconvened at Spotify’s studio in NYC to record two songs for the streaming service’s “Singles” live series. There, they performed a rendition of Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man“. Now, we can’t help but wonder if Rostam has even more Dylan covers up his sleeve.

This past September, Rostam dropped his first solo effort since leaving Vampire Weekend. The album, titled Half-Light, has a distinct yet unidentifiable quality. The record deals in memories and dreams and is packed with references to cabbies and Houston Street. But Rostam bristles at the notion of Half-Light being a sentimental love letter to New York and points out, in an interview with the Times, that Half-Light was largely written and composed before his big move to Los Angeles.

“It’s very revealing of a New York mind-set,” he said. “It’s the cult, right? It’s like, ‘Oh, you don’t live here anymore? Well, guess what, you don’t get to make an album about New York.’” But fans and critics are hailing Rostam’s Half-Light as a commendable solo effort and are antsy to see it brought to life on stage. Rostam will embark on a North American Tour beginning January 29th at the Earl in Atlanta, Georgia.