- Critic Score
- Most active
- Publication
- Most clicked
-
Jan 14, 2013100With results both as pleasurable, as inventive and as absorbing as these, there seems no danger that the impact of {Awayland} will be merely momentary.
-
Jan 14, 2013100It's that rare commodity: an album to immerse yourself in and spend time with, both things no one does any more.
-
Feb 1, 201390Defying all expectations, they have taken a brave leap forward and delivered one of the first great albums of 2013.
-
Jan 14, 201390{Awayland} is a treasure trove of an album, brimming with ideas, most of which work and all of which, at the very least, prove that O'Brien is not simply another little-boy-lost lamenting the fact his parents wouldn't pass him the salt, but a songwriter of real note.
-
Jan 14, 201390Far from falling under the weight of either expectation or ambition, {awayland} is a far more magnificent progression from Jackal than any of us could have hoped for.
-
Jan 14, 201390{Awayland} is just brilliant.
-
May 10, 201385{Awayland} is far more confident than 2010's Becoming A Jackal, its vision more ambitious, its poetry more conflicted, its melodies more complex, its execution more polished. [No. 98, p.61]
-
Apr 8, 201380The creative progression O'Brien exhibits here leaves no lingering questions of doubt whether he would succumb to the dreaded second album syndrome, and regardless of awards, wayland sees the Irishman at his best, both musically and lyrically.
-
Feb 11, 201380There’s a balanced mix of wistful folk, and rockier, more radio-friendly offerings which lure in the casual listener, ensuring an enduring record that warms the cockles in these frosty fledgling weeks of 2013.
-
Jan 24, 201380{Awayland} is not blessed with the stark folkloric purity of Becoming A Jackal. It still confirms, however, that O'Brien is a songwriter out of step, out of time, and when he hits his lyrical stride, out of this world. [Feb 2013, p.110]
-
Jan 18, 201380A picaresque journey through the cosmos. [Feb 2013, p.86]
-
Jan 15, 201380The edges may be sharper, the outlook less austere and self-contained, but Villagers are still defined by songs which deliver hook upon hook. [Feb 2013, p.82]
-
Jan 14, 201380The evocative lyrics sometimes suffer from overly mannered or just overdone phraseology.... But these are ultimately prices worth paying for the pleasingly poetic, adventurous and occasionally florid use of words that mark Villagers out as one of the more interesting, literate and imaginative storytellers of recent years.
-
Jan 14, 201380The dazzling imagery comes with a rollercoasting voyage through acoustic soul, brass and--a new development--electronica.
-
Jan 14, 201380The Dubliner's follow-up, though no less literate, is more adventurous and electronic.
-
Apr 17, 201370O’Brien, or Villagers rather, succeeded in creating an album rife with adventure and tragedy, made even more addictive with each listen.
-
Feb 12, 201370As an exercise in artfully executed pop maximalism, {Awayland} is unquestionably a treat.... All he needs now is something worth saying.
-
Jan 14, 201370Where there was tension and urgency [on his debut], now there's bigger, poppier and probably more commercially viable folk songs that don't quite pack the same punch.
-
Apr 23, 201364{Awayland} tends to feel without reason or necessity, as if thrown together more in effort to get something down than to say something that needed saying.
-
Apr 9, 201360On “Jackal,” O’Brien’s digressive songwriting was held together by a unifying palette. Here, he’s all over the place.
-
Mar 22, 201360The songs are well and good, the lyrics phenomenal at times, and the music solid. Yet there are enough moments when the album falls flat to deflate the impact of those golden moments. [Mar-Apr 2013, p.96]
-
Jan 18, 201360Villagers ought to be applauded for their ambition to heave themselves away from expectation, and then mourned for their lack of conviction which discards them back into it.
-
Jan 14, 201360O'Brien's voice is beautiful and his songwriting often adventurous, but there are times when the aim isn't as true as it could be.
-
Jan 14, 201355To its credit, {Awayland} rarely comes across as false, but O'Brien's affinity for cleverness over clarity ensures it rarely comes across in any real way.