Villagers on shortlist for Mercury Music Prize

WE ARE delighted to receive the news that Conor J. O'Brien - now better known as leader of Dublin band Villagers - has been nominated for a Mercury Music Prize for his superb, sparkling debut album Becoming a Jackal.

The shortlist was revealed in London earlier today and the winning album will be announced on 7 September.

The full list is:

Biffy Clyro “Only Revolutions” (14th Floor)

Corinne Bailey Rae “The Sea” (EMI)

Dizzee Rascal “Tongue N’ Cheek” (Dirtee Stank)

Kit Downes Trio “Golden’ (Basho)

Foals “Total Life Forever” (Transgressive)

I Am Kloot “Sky At Night (Shepherd Moon/EMI)

Laura Marling “I Speak Because I Can” (Virgin)

Mumford And Sons “Sigh No More” (Island)

Paul Weller “Wake Up The Nation” (Island)

Villagers “Becoming A Jackal” (Domino)

Wild Beasts “Two Dancers” (Domino)

The xx “xx” (XL)

A lot of great albums on there, particularly I Am Kloot and Laura Marling's offerings, which are both enrapturing. The Foals album, I thought, failed to hit the heights of their debut Antidotes, while Paul Weller's inclusion is frankly bizarre. Dizzee and The XX have immediately been installed as favourites, and after last year's Speech Debelle debacle, it is thought that the judges will be under pressure to reward a popular winner. Therefore keep an eye on Mumford and Sons, but our money is on Villagers, simply because it is one of our favourite albums, full stop. Review below from when it was released, if you need a refresher. We know that plans are afoot to bring Villagers back to Limerick also, so stay tuned here for updates..

Villagers

‘Becoming A Jackal’

(Domino)

RARELY has an Irish album release been accompanied with such universal expectation. Likewise, it is rare that such expectation is accompanied by a fulfilment of potential.This is the exception to the rule.

Villagers - essentially Conor J. O’Brien - finally release debut album Becoming A Jackal after whetting many appetites with the superb Hollow Kind EP, released in February of last year.The first Irish act signed to trendy UK record label Domino (home to Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys etc), this is an album that began life as a nameless collection of musical poems, but has become a heart-wrenching, melodic odyssey that should see O’Brien become the biggest act to come out of Ireland in many moons.

O’Brien was once in The Immediate, who imploded just as rave reviews began to see them appear set for stardom, and then spent the latter part of the last two years touring as Cathy Davey’s guitarist - notably standing out in her shows. But O’Brien was always meant for bigger and better things, such is the vividness of his lyrics, and the epic soaring scale of his vocals and musicianship (he recorded this album largely by himself with the help of producer Tommy McLaughlin).

This is quite simply a stunning album, one that will inevitably see the Dubliner compared to Eliot Smith or Conor Oberst, but there is more of a older-style feel to his debut, epic at times, subtle in others, not unlike Neil Young’s Harvest in that sense, for example.

Indeed, on the superb title track and first single, O’Brien channels Simon and Garfunkel in a song with off-kilter rhythms and popping bass lines, mixed in with soaring harmonies. It is something of a relief in the middle of two dark and subversive songs - the eerie I Saw The Dead and the unsettling and up-tempo Ship of Promises.The Meaning of the Ritual follows, one of two songs included here that was also on the EP (the other being Pieces, in which O’Brien moves from slow, Burt-Bacarach croon to a wild, howling, finish - think Radiohead recreating the Beatles’ orchestral antics on A Day In The Life), and has been tweaked to include some impressive horn sections.

But it is the gentle lullaby of Home that is the centre-piece of this album, and shows a lighter, more playful side of the musician. The Crosby, Stills and Nash-esque The Pact is another standout, as is the subtle Set The Tigers Free.Subtle is a defining word for this album, one that crawls under your skin, O’Brien’s lyrical abilities literally eye-opening in scale.

Quite simply, this is the finest Irish album released in many years.

RATING: 5/5

Interview with Fionn Regan

I meant to post this last week, but time got away from me.. Missed Regan's gig last Saturday as well, unfortunately, but better late than never to post this interview..

THE DELIGHTFULLY idiosyncratic Fionn Regan is something of a national treasure, a sort of modern wandering troubadour in the mould of Drake and Dylan, complete with bizarre bowl haircut, cherubic face and an ability to speak in wonderfully meandering metaphoric language.

Thankfully, his songs are damn good too, from the whimsical and joyous Mercury Music Prize nominated folk debut The End of History, to the visual and visceral recent follow-up The Shadow of an Empire, which has seen the Bray man develop a sort of electric swagger to his tempo.

While you might be forgiven for thinking Regan has been resting on his laurels since that 2006 debut, that couldn’t be further from the truth. An incessant period spent touring, particularly Stateside, has taken up much of the last four years, but Regan still found time to record not one, but two follow-ups to his debut.

The first was an uncompromising recording made in conjunction with Kings of Leon producer Ethan Johns, but was not what Regan’s American label wanted, and as a result, both parties went their separate ways, a parting Regan has likened to a divorce. He returned to Ireland and recorded and produced Shadow of an Empire in an old biscuit factory, and as a result, when he spoke to On the Beat recently, he described himself as “busting at the hinges” to get it out.

“I took on quite a lot of touring for The End of History,” he explains, in one of the more straightforward answers in a beguiling conversation. “I came off the road in 2008 and made a record with Ethan Johns, which got clamped on the docks with red tape wrapped around it, so I had pull out of the drive, and make another record. So in a sense I have made three (records).”

“I suppose what I am saying is that I have been flat out and sometimes people think that you have been sitting beside a swimming pool drinking a cocktail or something, but actually within the walls of the story, the turnaround has been remarkable. It has been very fast.” He adds, with a laugh: “There is a lot of trip wire around, and before you know it, it can be two inches into your shin, then you have to learn how to dance”.

Red-tape and label issues aside, it is clear that there has been a huge turnaround in musical styles on Regan’s follow-up album, as he moves to a sort of folk-punk rockabilly style, punctuated by plenty of anger and dark mutterings. Take the electric-polka beat of Violent Demeanour, a key track on the album, which seems to hint at mental illness, or the nod to drug addiction on Catacombs, or the swaggering, jangly, Dylan-esque opener Protection Racket; all of these seem to point to Regan changing tack, away from his softer musings.

These may have been influenced by Dylan Thomas and Jack Kerouac, who he namechecks, but Regan remains conflicted about a drastic seachange in his style, it seems.

“The thing about the End of History, that came about because the only way I could get around was by travelling with an acoustic guitar and sleeping on couches,” explains Regan. “Eventually, when it got released in America, I could take a drummer along with me, so then you have a different set of tools around you, so you can do a different thing, but everything has its own natural leaning. It is well and good if you repeat something if it resonates with you, if it is the truth, but if it isn't, you can't.”

“Ultimately (the new record) is not very different at all, the lyrics, and the person are still there at the centre of it. Maybe when you break it down into different compartments, aesthetics and this that and the other, maybe the musical language has changed a little bit, but the centre pole remains the same,” he adds.

Taking a reference point from “the pop songs of the 60s”, Regan has released an album full of its idiosyncrasies and quirks, which was driven by a certain amount of trial and error, as he reveals in his singular way.

“When you are on the ship and the captain is not at his perch, someone needs to grab the wheel, that is the way it has worked out with me so far, I have to grab the wheel, and in a way it saves time for me to do it that way... I locked antlers with myself and pushed myself - and when there are too many other people doing that, it makes the process harder.”

He says he is looking forward to getting back out on tour, but that period won’t be as long as it was after his debut.

“Probably not. That was a very unique situation. Sometimes, that is one of the learning curves - to me it is more important to document future records, and make sure that the turnover is faster.”

“I learnt an incredible amount and got to see the world - but this time, I don't see myself touring for two and a half years, which is the simplest way of putting it I suppose,” he adds with a laugh.

The Shadow of an Empire is out now.

Lisa Hannigan shortlisted for Mercury Music Prize

The beguiling, charming Lisa Hannigan has been nominated for a Mercury Music Prize, the UK's top annual award.. The singer is nominated for her superb Sea Sew album, one of our favourite album's of last year.

Hannigan is nominated alongside:

Florence and the Machine

Kasabian

Speech Debelle

Friendly Fires

La Roux

Bat For Lashes

The Horrors

Glasvegas

Led Bib

Sweet Billy Pilgrom

The Invisible

We only just talked to Miss Hannigan last Friday - see interview in today's Chronicle. Early odds on favourite is English media darling Florence and the Machine, who will take some beating. Lisa is at 18/1 (I'll have some of that thanks!) and Friendly Fires are at 8/1 (tip!).

The winner will be announced on September 4. Lisa Hannigan plays in Daghdha's Church on August 6...