Album Review: Villagers, That Golden Time

Man, let’s start with That Golden Time's title track and stellar lead single. It's a song that drips in Pink Floydian bucolic meadows, interwoven with a dream-pop sensibility akin to Grizzly Bear – which is even further bolstered by a tremendously wonderful video from animator extraordinaire Rok Predin.

Remarkably tracking a butterfly on its nightly perilous travails, it wraps snugly around the artwork of the sixth album from Villagers: featuring a mounted butterfly and a upside down old 20-pence piece – you know, the ace golden-hued one with the horse.

So, lepidopterists abound, as do exquisite tunes, none more so than ‘Behind That Curtain’ – a clamour of voices been shushed to listen to delicately tickled piano, hi-hat and Conor O’Brien purring splendidly from and about another time. The babble of an infant or the bawl of a demon (it’s difficult to decide which) bubbles beneath ‘Keepsake’, buried in a deep wash of synths, martial beat and the repeated refrain of “cannot keep the dream alive.”

Other highlights include the baleful country of ‘Brother Hen’, and the mix of sirens and faraway voices on ‘No Drama’. It’s all underpinned with a generous helping of sardonic wit from O’Brien, making for another winning effort from Villagers.

8/10

To coincide with the release of the album, Villagers' Conor O'Brien sat down with Hot Press to share his reflections on the internet age, original sin, Sinéad O’Connor, and the band’s biggest headline show to date at Trinity College Dublin. Read the full interview in the new issue, out now: