With a fourteen year career spanning four album releases, Conor O’Brien’s Villagers project shows no signs of slowing down with the release of The First Day – an uplifting anthem of soul tinged psychedelia bursting with saturated colour and inspired instrumental flourishes from lush strings to bold brass to a glockenspiel bringing a sense of childlike wonder to the track’s central melodic idea.
Villagers also shared a Daniel Brereton directed video which opens in black and white before jumping into glorious technicolour as a young girl dances joyfully through an otherwise non-descript housing estate.
Watch the video for ‘The First Day’ below:
“The whole process was pretty collaborative with Conor. I think we both imagined a floatiness to the video, and obviously the title conjures up a lot of imagery and ideas – ‘the first day of the rest of your life’. What does that look like? How does that feel?” muses director Daniel Brereton
“We were very lucky to shoot on film and have great casting and styling. Shooting during a pandemic is not easy, so I feel fortunate that we got to make it happen,” he continues.
The single comes ahead of the release of Villager’s fifth studio ‘Fever Dreams’ album which was today announced by O’Brien for an August 20th release.
“I had an urge to write something that was as generous to the listener as it was to myself. Sometimes the most delirious states can produce the most ecstatic, euphoric and escapist dreams,” says Conor O’Brien of the album’s gestation.
The follow-up to 2018’s ‘The Art Of Pretending To Swim’, ‘Fever Dreams’ was recorded in full-band studio sessions in late 2019 and early 2020 before O’Brien refined them in his home studio in Dublin. ‘Fever Dreams’ was then mixed by David Wrench (Frank Ocean, The xx, FKA Twigs).
Tracklisting:
- Something Bigger
- The First Day
- Song In Seven
- So Simpatico
- Momentarily
- Circles In The Firing Line
- Restless Endeavour
- Full Faith In Providence
- Fever Dreams
- Deep In My Heart
Stream ‘The First Day’ below: