With the release of Villages self-titled album it marks the end to a three-year long wait that began with the release of their first single, “Hymn After Hymn.” The album is a full-fledged indie folk adventure, but at its core is a Celtic backbone.
While this may be the band’s debut album as Villages, they should already be fairly recognizable in their previous incarnation as Mardeen, whose song “Telephones” was covered by Mo Kenney in 2014. Mardeen was another animal entirely, featuring all the same players, but full of breakneck indie rock riffs. Villages is a decidedly traditional return for these princes of Cape Breton who had previously gone so far as to renounce their position in the island’s musical peerage. But, like a loves of the pipes, there is just something in the blood that makes these things seem inevitable.
There’s only one way to listen to Celtic music and that’s running at it sideways. Villages have perfected the art of mimicking the sound of bagpipes with the human voices for that classic Goidelic Lilt complete with grace notes (which sounds more appealing than the proposed term: ‘Highland yodelling’). The album is full of swaying ballads prettily dressed with mandolin; more akin to their traditional counterparts than such contemporary bar-filling bootstompers as The Stanfields.
There’s a fine line to be drawn in the field of indie folk, with throwbacks to one side and over-the-top trad rockers far to the other. Villages gracefully straddle that line to reinvigorate a genre with tastefully traditional elements and small-scale storytelling. There’s a sense that something has been carried forward over a great stretch of time while being excitingly new.
Leaning into the traditional sound has created a densely packed theme for the album. It carries you through in a way that almost necessitates a start-to-finish listen of the album’s eight tracks. Suitably, it opens with a crisply fresh “Awakening of Spring,” complete with birdsong. Amidst all the vocal inflections and mandolin playing it’s almost surprising nary a mention of a single “bonnie lass.”
The band leans further into the curiously idiosyncratic drone, regardless of the presence of actual bagpipes or not, and maintain it, one way or another, from “Maggie of the Cove” throughout. Which might be a smart marketing move, given the mixed response bagpipes tend to provoke. Hopefully, it will prove to be a mass introductory album to the genre, and provide a stepping stone for bagpipes to replace the electric guitar as the dominant instrument in popular music.
While the album is full of delightful tale-telling, it is the lyrics of “Ale,” which stand out as gem: “I believe in one true God, so there’s always someone to blame.” If this song may be immortalized as a bar staple, delivered in the form of a half-remembered recitation from a man standing atop a table, shirt amiss and pint in hand, Villages will have found a happy place in history.
Closing out the album is the gentle “Moonlit,” (though not before the “Fairy Cave” waltz), providing a suitably romantic denouement. It is, perhaps, the most modern sounding track on the album, with a haunting use of some linguistic acrobats and curious instrumentation, and yet showcases the strength of the album: rather than divorcing the past it embodies what might be obtained through evolution.
With this album Villages give the impression that they are extending an olive branch (a thistle would seem inappropriate) from traditional Celtic music to a mainstream audience. It is a beautiful blending of old and new to create something wholly different. We might have our biases, but it will be interesting to see it tested in the wild to see if a festival crowd will attempt to keep up with vocalist Matt Ellis.
Tour Dates:
03.22.19 – Halifax, NS @ Good Robot Brewing Company (2 Shows)
03.26.19 – Ottawa, ON @ Bar Robo
03.27.19 – Peterborough, ON @ The Garnet
03.29.19 – Toronto, ON @ The Dakota Tavern
03.30.19 – Hamilton, ON @ House Concert
04.13.19 – Sydney, NS @ Breton Brewing Co.
04.18.19 – Moncton, NB @ Tide and Boar
04.19.19 – Fredericton, NB @ Grimross Brewing
04.20.19 – Charlottetown, PE @ The Pourhouse
04.26.19 – Lunenburg, NS @ Ametora Supply
04.27.19 – Margaretsville, NS @ Evergreen Theatre
05.01-05.19 – Charlottetown, PE @ ECMAs Festival & Conference