Villagers

Add Date: May 25

Artist: Villagers

Album: Becoming a Jackal

Label: Domino

Genre: Rock, folk pop

Comments: The debut LP from Villagers, the not-quite-one-man-band project of Ireland's Conor J. O'Brien, is an extremely impressive collection of folkish rock tunes. O'Brien's songwriting and earnest vocals are highlighted by simple, yet beautiful instrumentation--his guitar, piano and drums are nicely complemented by French horn and string arrangements, written by Cormac Curran and performed by the London Ensemble. It's a pretty simple formula that sounds quite good on first listen, and gets better with each spin of the record.

For fans of Beirut, Neutral Milk Hotel and Owen Pallett; though there's typically not quite as much going on in a Villagers song as in something from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea or Gulag Orkestar, here less is truly more. I really like Becoming a Jackal from start to finish, but in particular check out the title track, "Set the Tigers Free" and "The Pact (I'll Be Your Fever)."