
To celebrate ten years of Villagers’ third album “Darling Arithmetic”, Conor O’Brien has announced three special acoustic performances in London, Dublin and Paris for May. The album was released in April 2015 following Villagers’ Mercury Prize-shortlisted “Awayland”. The melodic songs explored love, relationships and all that encompasses – desire, obsession, lust, loneliness and confusion and hit #1 upon its release in Ireland and won the Ivor Novello for Best Album Award the subsequent year. On the record’s lead single ‘Courage’, O’Brien was concerned with the most important kind of love – the one for yourself: “It took a little time to get where I wanted / It took a little time to get free / It took a little time to be honest / It took a little time to be me.”
‘Hot Scary Summer’ raked over the break-up of a love affair blighted by “all the pretty young homophobes looking out for a fight” whilst ‘Everything I Am Is Yours‘ was a tender standout and most recently featured in the John Crowley film “We Live In Time” starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield. Written, recorded, produced and mixed entirely by O’Brien in Malahide, the album’s sparse instrumentation allowed for the intimacy and beauty of the songs to shine through.
Villagers 2025 Dates:
23rd May – Philharmonic, Paris – sold out
27th May – Cadogan Hall, London
29th May – The Helix, Dublin
Tickets available here. Here’s that single ‘Courage‘: