Villagers, plural, is actually Irish singer-songwriter Conor O’Brien, singular. If the name suggests some fuzzy ground between band and solo, then so does the music, a cloudy, amorphous, ever-mutating blend of acoustic sensitivity and lush post-Radiohead atmospherics that all comes into focus around O’Brien’s clear, sweet voice.

Having served his indie rock apprenticeship with angular guitar slingers, The Immediate, the Dubliner’s solo offering is a different beast altogether and exudes an aura of maturity that belies his tender age. A confidence in delivery is matched by an assuredness in writing and in our humble opinion title track Becoming a Jackal, in it's Elliot Smith like drawl will take O'Brien to an audience that has writing deserves.

A fine debut.

1 I Saw the Dead
2 Becoming a Jackal
3 Ship of Promises
4 The Meaning of the Ritual
5 Home
6 That Day
7 The Pact (I'll Be Your Fever)
8 Set the Tigers Free
9 Twenty-Seven Strangers
10 Pieces
11 To Be Counted Among Men




The tone lifts towards the end of this accomplished debut, even drifting towards buoyancy. But more than anything, Becoming a Jackal is the sound of a songwriter trying to scorch out a place for himself; his best work is surely yet to come. - 4/5 The Guardian

The Villagers' Becoming a Jackal is a gorgeous debut. - 5/5 The Telegraph