January
seems to be a month of second albums this year, with records coming
from The Joy Formidable and
Everything Everything to
name but two, and Irish folk band Villagers
are no exception. Their second outing, {Awayland}
is a fantastic cacophonous assault on the senses; a tumultuous
roller-coaster journey through different genres that brings to mind a
more polished and worldly Neutral
Milk Hotel.
Poetry is a word which has been surrounding the band since their 2010
début Becoming A
Jackal,
and after just one listen to {Awayland},
it's easy to see why. Singer Conor O'Brien's lyrics conjure images
that seem to border on the tangible, while the music the words are
enveloped in is at times more of a sound-scape in which to lose
yourself than a tune you can hum along with.
The
album opens with the understated 'My Lighthouse' which gives you a
brief insight in to what the rest of the album will sound like,
albeit a diluted version. Imagine a kind of Jeff
Buckley meets
Bright Eyes
amalgam and you won't be far wrong. And while the former are/were
fantastic at what they do/did. O'Brien lacks the moody angst that
perpetuates a Bright Eyes album, and nor is the track as candid as
Buckley, at least in this instance anyway
Thankfully
second track entitled 'Earthly Pleasure' is where the album really
begins to take hold. A brilliantly crafted narrative that tells the
story of a man who finds himself back in 1822, recounting the horrors
of the Brazilian
war of independence to a woman who is assumed to be God.
The chorus is dark and chilling while at the same time serving to
uplift the dark imagery contained in the lyrics.
The
first single taken from the album is another metaphorical masterpiece
entitled 'The Waves' in which it becomes clearly evident that the
band are influenced as much by literature as they are music. Starting
off slow the song builds up before ending with a crashing crescendo
of noise most likely in place to mirror the metaphorical waves from
whence the song takes its name, all the while with O'Brien repeating
the lyric “Approaching
the shore”
and sounding more and more like Conor
Oberst with
every utterance.
{Awayland}
is an album which takes several listens to take it all in. Repeated
listens to any of the tracks included reveal a nuance or lyric
previously overlooked, and it's a delight to return to a song and
notice something you failed to before.
'Nothing
Arrived' is perhaps the most radio-friendly song included and is no
surprise that is the latest single to be taken from the album. The
chorus of the song is the most straightforward yet, but fantastic
lyrics such as "I
waited for something/ and something died/ so I waited for nothing/
and nothing arrived"
not only mirror the delicate simplicity that is a main staple of the
song but build on it and show the band don't just need lyrics that
border on the literary and might be confused with pretention.
Just
to clarify, those looking for an easy-to-listen to Folk record are
probably looking in the wrong place. Instead of one man and an
acoustic guitar what Villagers harbour is an orgy of understated
post-folk. Utilising whatever instruments they feel work is a bold
move for the band, as is the surprising inclusion of electronic
instrumentation, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work. What
Villagers have done is expertly craft a metaphorical masterpiece
which needs to be scratched away at to reveal the literary delights
underneath. While certainly not an album for everyone, those with an
interest in alternative folk should definitely check out {Awayland}
even
if it's just to garner an understanding of what poetry should sound like in
2013.
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