Irish band Villagers released their Mercury Prize nominated album 'Becoming A Jackal' in May last year on Domino Records. Although they didn't win the award, the album received critical acclaim beyond their wildest dreams. I was lucky enough to see this band live last September and it was a joyous experience to witness such a young band being embraced with real genuine adoration. Conor J. O Brien reminds me of Sufjan Stevens in many ways, with his songwriting style and his inventive melodies. There are also many other influences in there too, Elliot Smith, Conor Oberst, and even The Flaming Lips come to mind, however their drawing on such sources are merely observations. This is an album brimming with originality with each song building into the next, a collection that you don't feel satisfied with until you hear it in full, from start to finish. Their beautifully crafted songs are a joy to hear, they are not immediately pleasing to the ear, but gain an addictive momentum piece by piece. This is the title song...
I would go as far as to say, that 'Becoming A Jackal' is one of the finest albums to come from an Irish band in the past 10 years. Their debut is already a magnum opus, wherever will they go from here?
My favourite song on the album is 'Pieces', this is the live version here from The Crawdaddy venue in Dublin 2009 (over a year prior to its release).
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