Awayland
| {Awayland} | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Studio album by Villagers | ||||
| Released | January 11, 2013 | |||
| Recorded | Attica Audio, Donegal, Ireland | |||
| Genre | Indie folk | |||
| Length | 41:04 | |||
| Label | Domino Records | |||
| Producer | Conor O'Brien & Tommy McLaughlin | |||
| Villagers chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 80/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| The Guardian | |
| Impact |  |
| NME | 7/10 |
{Awayland} is the second studio album by Irish indie folk band Villagers, released on January 11, 2013 on Domino Records. Co-produced by band members Conor O'Brien and Tommy McLaughlin, the album was preceded by the single, "Nothing Arrived".
Like its predecessor, Becoming a Jackal (2010), the album has been nominated for the Mercury Prize.
During the writing and process for {Awayland}, primary songwriter Conor O'Brien was influenced by Radiohead, Aphex Twin, Tricky and Björk, noting, "I bought my first synthesizer and learned how to use that and got a drum machine and a sampler and started making terrible techno music. Slowly words started appearing out of all these ambient soundscapes I was making and then I picked up the acoustic again and learnt how to finger pick properly. The whole album is really a by-product of that steep learning curve." At one stage, O'Brien considered recording an instrumental album, inspired by electronica and Krautrock.
O'Brien subsequently spent the next year recording rough demos for the album, before rehearsing them with the rest of the band: guitarist Tommy McLaughlin, pianist Cormac Curran, bass guitarist Daniel Snow, and drummer James Byrne. O'Brien noted, "After a year of working on my own, I spent four days kicking them around with the band, and it just became more visceral and groovier. I got rid of most of the electronic beds that I had made the song on. Stripping things back exposed the lyrics a bit more. Sometimes you can throw too much at something, and it just becomes weaker."
The band spent five weeks recording the album in Donegal, Ireland, at live-in studio, Attica Audio Recording.
Comparing {Awayland} to the band's predominately acoustic debut album, Becoming a Jackal (2010), primary songwriter Conor O'Brien noted, "After two years of touring, I started feeling like the worst writer in the world. There wasn't enough depth to maintain my interest every night. There’s no way I can sing “My love is selfish” a hundred time and it continue to feel pure and true. I felt, in a very childish way, I had romanticised sadness, and I was using the music to wallow. Even the acoustic guitar started sounding terrible to me."
...
Wikipedia