Villagers...strange fables and young passions, a new star arrives

It seems that each Irish generation throws up a new songwriting genius. Carrying the sacred flame of Van Morrision, Christy Moore, and Glen Hansard, is newcomer and Villagers motive force Conor J O'Brien.

After his charming, entrancing performance on Jools' Holland's Later, and a relaxed, under the radar set at Glastonbury comes the critically well-received new album Becoming a Jackal, which accurately reflects the depth and power of O'Brien's music. Self-penned, playing nearly all the instruments, self-produced, emotive, poetic, astoundingly self-assured, this is perhaps the most promising young talent since Jeff Buckley.

He songs muddle about with dreams and our inner, private reality. At times he's as sweetly, as naively melodramatic as any heart torn teenager ("The Meaning of the Ritual"), elsewhere he delves into the grotesque absurdity of the dream world.

"I Saw The Dead" opens with jingling bells, a rolling piano and strings and relays a strange story of temptation and guilty regret. In "Becoming a Jackal" O'Brien apparently looks with distaste at the selfish appetite required of a performer, fantastically imagining himself becoming a jackal, and revelling the wild freedom whilst perhaps betraying the trust of a lover. The epic, (penultimate) finale "Pieces" begins as a lazy, porch-step blues, before running wildly off and ending with frenzied guitar and abandoned wolf howling. Closer is the quietly reflective parable "To Be Counted Among Men", curiously placed and sounding almost like a postscript.

In places he sounds like a youthful Neil Finn - "That Day", "Home" are that just kind of rock-pop; strongly balanced and singalong-able yet somehow inoffensively saying not very much, while "Set the Tigers Free" with that American MOR groove that is just irresistably catchy. At other times are echoes of type of the childishly romantic, soulful troubadour thing that Cat Stevens used to do.

He has a true poet's loosely nimble way with words, easing them around corners, and pushing them through narrow gaps. 

The music supports the songs faithfully, but without any obvious virtuosity to steal the limelight of O'Brien's own voice and the songs themselves. Shifts and transitions in the music have a loosely held, natural momentum, amplifying the mood and justifying O'Brien's editorial choice of full band rather than going down the road of a sparse, naked solo act.

Highlights:
Becoming A Jackal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3sBblnrGik ,
Pieces - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ins3IryV-NU
The Meaning of the Ritual - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCdCuUKdx04
The Pact - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8XSNQjRYbw

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/villagers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/apr/06/new-band-villagers