Villagers
Darling Arithmetic
April 13 2015 (Domino)
7/10
Words: Alison Mack
Villagers third album sees Dubliner Conor O'Brien doing what he does best: playing the forlorn, sadness card. It's one that has kept him in good stead for the larger part of his recorded work - his slight departure two years ago into electronica on 'Awayland' discounted.
The nine tracks on this latest record by the artist who saw both his 2010 debut album 'Becoming A Jackal' nominated for the Mercury Prize, followed by the previously mentioned 'Awayland', show O'Brien laying bare both vocals and innermost feelings about love gone awry, whilst stripping down instrumentation to a raw level, employing minimal and subtle use of piano motifs, acoustic guitars and Mellotron (which accounts for the album’s occasional horn and cello tones); typified by album opener 'Courage' which draws on little more than an unobtrusive acoustic guitar and O'Brien's first stab at heartache with, "it took a little time to get free/it took a little time to be honest/it took a little time to be me."
'Everything I Am Is Yours', the piano focused album standout, the
endearing and light ‘Soul Serene’, to the nervously frenetic ‘Little Bigot’ where love is applied against hate, and 'Hot Scary Summer' that takes on homophobia, all written, recorded, produced and mixed at O'Brien's Malahide home, perhaps have allowed for more of an openness that might have been mire suppressed in a big city studio environment.
'Darling Arithmetic' is an intimate portrait that will undoubtedly please Villagers' staunch fans.
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