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VILLAGERS
After the band-centred sessions of its predecessor, That Golden Time’s solo-centric core was not forced on O’Brien by lockdown. “For me, That Golden Time has an internalised voice, so much so that I almost found it impossible to let anyone else in,” he says. “It’s probably the most vulnerable album I’ve made. I played and recorded everything in my apartment, and finally, towards the end, invited people in.” Invites went out to, among others, Irish legend Dónal Lunny [Planxty, The Bothy Band] on bouzouki, American songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick on violin, and a group of players that O’Brien had first seen performing in a tribute to one of his great loves, Italian composer Ennio Morricone, who added soprano vocal, viola and cello.
The understated poetry within That Golden Time is effortlessly carried by gorgeous melodies and sublime instrumentation. In “No Drama”, as the narrator pleads for respite from the vicissitudes of life, O’Brien equates an orchestral swell with an appeal for quiet beauty and peace. “Behind That Curtain” is a rare moment of musical discombobulation as a solemn, soulful ballad hands over to a jazzy coda, “It’s the sound of deafening alarm bells inside your head,” remarks O’Brien. Exploring these themes further, there is also a secondary image of a coin on the artwork (an Irish twenty pence piece) to which O’Brien explains: “The types of physical currency change throughout time, but the essential power relationships and bartering principles persevere throughout the cosmetic changes.”
As the album comes to its conclusion with “Money On The Mind”, we find a moment of serenity with a ray of hope. The very last line, softly crooned, is “My money’s on the mind, truth be told,” a shout-out to the resilience of the human spirit. The moth might be disorientated, but it swerves the flame to live another day.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Another wonderfully heartfelt selection from Conor O'Brien, with his sweeping instrumentation and perfectly smooth vocals weaving together into modern folk ballads that are as evocative as they are distinctive. Beautifully warm, memorable and deep.TRACK LISTING
1. Truly Alone
2. First Responder
3. I Want What I Don’t Need
4. You Lucky One
5. That Golden Time
6. Keepsake
7. Brother Hen
8. No Drama
9. Behind That Curtain
10. Money On The Mind
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- LP
- £23.99
Usually ships within: 2-5 days - Cat Number
- WIGLP463S
- Release date
- 20 Aug '21
- Format Info
Black vinyl.
Black vinyl. -
- CD
- £10.99
Usually ships within: 2-5 days - Cat Number
- WIGCD463
- Release date
- 20 Aug '21
O’Brien says on the gestation of Fever Dreams: “I had an urge to write something that was as generous to the listener as it was to myself. Sometimes the most delirious states can produce the most ecstatic, euphoric and escapist dreams.”
These are songs with the strange, melted shapes and the magical ambivalence of dreams. The intent of the songs is both mysterious and as clear as a bell. With Fever Dreams, there is a sense of a deepening mastery and an expanding reach by O’Brien. Inspiration for the album was found in many places and came in from all angles, from night swimming on a Dutch island to Flann O’Brien, Audre Lorde, David Lynch, L. S. Lowry via the library music of Piero Umiliani and Alessandro Alessandroni and jazz from Duke Ellington and Alice Coltrane.
Written over the course of two years, the main bodies of the songs were recorded in a series of full-band studio sessions in late 2019 and early 2020. During the long, slow pandemic days, O’Brien refined them in his tiny home studio in Dublin, and the album was then mixed by David Wrench (Frank Ocean, The xx, FKA Twigs).
TRACK LISTING
Side A
01 Something Bigger
02 The First Day
03 Song In Seven
04 So Simpatico
05 Momentarily
Side B
01 Circles In The Firing Line
02 Restless Endeavour
03 Full Faith In Providence
04 Fever Dreams
05 Deep In My Heart
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- CD
- £9.99
Usually ships within: 2-5 days - Cat Number
- WIGCD428
- Release date
- 21 Sep '18
Following the exquisitely sparse, intimate aura of 2015’s Darling Arithmetic, O’Brien’s new record reconnects with the multi-faceted approach of Villagers’ 2010 album debut Becoming A Jackal and 2013’s {Awayland} while adding a new-found soulfulness, rhythmic nous and dazzling panoply of sonic detail, both analogue and digital, creating feverish moods while writing effortlessly accessible tunes. Balanced with subtle aspects and lyrical themes that embrace existential fears and hopes in this desperate, technologically-centred dystopian age, The Art Of Pretending To Swim is the most brilliantly realised Villagers album to date.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Beautifully played acoustic guitars, bolstered with tender electronic flourishes and a driving percussive backline, Villagers perfectly mix the appeal of melodic indie with the silken, shimmering swagger of synth pop to great effect. Beautiful stuff.TRACK LISTING
1. Again
2. A Trick Of The Light
3. Sweet Saviour
4. Long Time Waiting
5. Fool
6. Love Came With All That It Brings
7. Real Go-Getter
8. Hold Me Down
9. Ada
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- CD
- £9.99
Usually ships within: 2-5 days - Cat Number
- WIGCD368
- Release date
- 8 Jan '16
Recorded in one day at London’s RAK Studio with Richard Woodcraft (Radiohead, The Last Shadow Puppets) and Villagers live engineer Ber Quinn, the album is a re-imagining of older material seamlessly woven with present glories from Villagers’ most recent studio album, ‘Darling Arithmetic’.
Released in April 2015, Conor O’Brien’s third album under the guise of Villagers was a more pared-back, intimate journey compared to the multi-faceted arrangements of ‘Becoming A Jackal’ (2010) and ‘{Awayland}’ (2013). This fresh approach was extended on subsequent Villagers tours, where old songs were reinvented to match the new. Then for one day in July 2015, 18 songs were quickly captured and 12 songs chosen for the final album, making it Villagers’ most intense but satisfying session to date. These recordings are all first or second takes and the immediacy of the occasion was part of the magic that day, live and unadorned by overdubs or studio trickery.
The unique nature of these arrangements is due in no small part to the musicians in the room at the time of recording: Cormac Curran on grand piano and analogue synthesizer, Danny Snow on double bass, Mali Llywelyn on harp, mellotron and vocals and Gwion Llewelyn on drums, flugelhorn and vocals. The result is a lush, harmony-laden and vibrant document of a time and a place.
Included in the album is a new recording of ‘Memoir’, which O’Brien wrote for Charlotte Gainsbourg; it can be found on her 2011 album ‘Stage Whisper’ but has never before been recorded by Villagers until now.
TRACK LISTING
Set The Tigers Free
Everything I Am Is Yours
My Lighthouse
Courage
That Day
The Soul Serene
Memoir
Hot Scary Summer
The Waves
Darling Arithmetic
So Naive
Wichita Lineman
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- CD
- £9.99
Usually ships within: 2-5 days - Cat Number
- WIGCD330
- Release date
- 13 Apr '15
Darling Arithmetic was written, recorded, produced and mixed by O’Brien at home - the loft of a converted farmhouse that he shares in the coastal town of Malahide to the north of Dublin - revealing a single-minded artist at the peak of his already considerable songwriting powers. It encompasses the various shades of feeling – desire, obsession, lust, loneliness and confusion, and deeper into philosophical and existential territory, across a cast of lovers, friends, family and even strangers. Backing up his supple and emoting vocal and guitar is the subtlest palate of instrumentation – piano, Mellotron (which accounts for the album’s occasional horn and cello tones) and brushes. O’Brien plays every instrument on these exquisite, melodic songs in a sparse, spacious, acoustic-leaning fashion.
On Darling Arithmetic, O’Brien doesn’t only pare back his use of language but looks deep into his own heart and motives. The opening track and first single, ‘Courage’, concerns the most important kind of love – for yourself: “It took a little time to get where I wanted / It took a little time to get free / It took a little time to be honest / It took a little time to be me.”
TRACK LISTING
1. Courage
2. Everything I Am Is Yours
3. Dawning On Me
4. Hot Scary Summer
5. The Soul Serene
6. Darling Arithmetic
7. Little Bigot
8. No One To Blame
9. So Naïve