“I was a dreamer staring out of windows, out onto the main street ‘cos that’s where the dream goes” – there just isn’t any better way to communicate how Villagers’ debut album ‘Becoming A Jackal’ feels than this, the chorus from the title-track. The whole album is interwoven with romantic imagery and poetry and conjures up an atmosphere that is at times dreamy and sombre but at all times intimate. And although it’s only June, ‘Becoming A Jackal’ makes one yearn for autumn to come soon.
What all songs on ‘Becoming A Jackal’ have in common is their dramatic nature and detailed instrumentation which makes this album so coherent and intriguing. One can sense that this album wasn’t put together in a rush and a great deal of effort has been laid into getting the atmosphere right – melancholic pianos and violins get their fair share on opener I Saw The Dead with rattling bells in the background leading the beat, The Meaning Of The Ritual is carried by a quiet brass section and more violins, an old organ lays the foundation in The Pact – I’ll Be Your Fever and there can be more pianos and, of course, acoustic guitars found on ‘Becoming A Jackal’, because it is first and foremost a folk album.
Yet while Conor O’Brien, the man behind Villagers, might be a traditional storyteller with a fondness for mysticism, it would be a bit unfair to pigeonhole him as ‘just’ a singer/songwriter. O’Brien used to be the singer of The Immediate, a Dublin based indie band that just broke up before it could make a lasting mark on the music scene. Villagers is the natural continuation of The Immediate, which explains why ‘Becoming A Jackal’ sounds so fully formed. This time round though he doesn’t have to put up with a band in self-destruction mode – he simply plays all the instruments himself. And while songs like Home, That Day or Set The Tigers Free are minimalist in nature and sparsely arranged, leaving them enough room to breath and expand, he still comes back to the full-bodied and sinewy sound of Ship Of Promises with its driving drums and hypnotic guitar riff. Therefore, Villagers is a one-man band. Instead of running with the pack, Conor O’Brien chose to be alone - he became a Jackal.
Comparisons have been drawn between him and the other Conor of Bright Eyes, and yes, there are obvious similarities in appearance and voice. O’Brien also sounds like a young Paul Simon at times but to accuse him of copying someone-else’s shtick would be wrong. If anything, he has more in common with Merz - a likeminded dreamer. One can only hope O’Brien never runs with the pack.