10 for 2011: #4 – Villagers
Last month, we asked you to vote for the top 10 artists you thought would be big in 2011. Winging in at the #4 position is the only Mercury Prize-nominated act in our top ten countdown…Irish too…
Villagers, the folk pop band fronted by Conor J. O’Brien, received the happiest of surprises this past July when they were shortlisted for the Barclaycard Mercury Prize this year. When explaining their choosing of the band’s debut album, ‘Becoming a Jackal’, they hailed it as “a record of great charm and mystery”. I agree completely with this sentiment. Folk pop acts these days are a dime a dozen (especially in the UK), but very rarely do you come across someone like O’Brien who not only can emote like the best of them in an amazing voice when performing but also writes the most brilliant lyrics of any poet or writer under the age of 30. (There, I’ve said it.)
Check out a live acoustic performance of ‘The Pact’, recorded for Fordham University’s Alternate Side radio programme. I feel truly blessed that I got to see O’Brien perform this past summer. With that gorgeous voice and amazing writing talent, he and Villagers are primed for some truly amazing things next year.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH_rAw-1apw[/youtube]
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