Villagers

After his former band The Immediate had split, Dublin singer-songwriter Conor O'Brien set about penning songs that would make him one of Ireland's most critically acclaimed young stars. Originally a solo project, O'Brien recorded Villagers’ 2010 debut album Becoming a Jackal in his friend Tommy McLaughlin's attic studio in Donegal amid snowstorms and an idyllic countryside. The album won praise for its humble honesty, beautiful melodies, and old-time warmth, as well as topping the Irish charts and receiving a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize. As time progressed Villagers grew into a full-scale band with McLaughlin taking a prominent role alongside bassist Danny Snow, drummer James Byrne and pianist Cormac Curran and together they created the more uplifting, lush, fuller sounding second album wayland in 2013. Still full of acoustic lullabies and dreamy introspection, it earned comparisons with Bright Eyes, Elliot Smith, and The Frames as it reached Number 16 in the UK and again received a Mercury nomination. Their third album, Darling Arithmetic, was released in 2015 and went Number 1 in Ireland just as their previous two LPs had. 2016’s Where Have You Been All My Life? stalled at Number 13, but 2018’s The Art of Pretending to Swim reached Number 2. They would return to Number 2 with 2021’s Fever Dreams.

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