Ireland’s Villagers is one of the most played artists on Morning Becomes Eclectic at the moment thanks to a beautifully epic pop song called “Nothing Arrived”. It’s the first hint at their highly anticipated new album, out next spring.
From KCRW DJ Anne Litt: “The other word I would use is triumphant – even though the lyrics aren’t. It’s that play between light and dark that I love.”
Stream “Nothing Arrived”:
Villagers – a project from songwriter Conor J. O’Brien — earned a Mercury Prize nomination for a fantastic debut album,“Becoming a Jackal”. Conor performed almost everything on that album himself, but his forthcoming release “{Awayland}”was more of a group effort as he invited his fellow touring partners to perform his songs, allowing a certain level of collaborative inventiveness to inform the arrangements.
And what subject matter will he tackle, you might ask? Oh, just the basics – life and death.
From a press release:
“Trees, birds, the sea – all recurring images in O’Brien’s work that provide a kind of metaphor for living and dying, and the sense of soaring otherness. The record is possessed with playful joy as it is with devastation, a filtering of disparate influences – the quiet elegance of Nick Drake, and the sensuality of Curtis Mayfield. It is, as Kurt Vonnegut might have put it “intricate and voluptuous and enchanted and absurd” (Slaughterhouse-Five, Chapter 6)- life, in other words.”
Check out a gorgeous acoustic set he performed on Chris Douridas’ show in 2010. The band is touring Europe through March, but hopefully we will see some U.S. dates announced soon!
RR