Vinyl Record

Villagers - Awayland

Villagers - Awayland on LP vinyl. A 2013 record available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel, Ireland.

LP · 2013

Available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel.

Buyer notes: 2013 LP, currently available from the Kilmorna Collection vinyl shelf. Pay for pickup in Listowel or ship within Ireland for EUR 5.50.

Awayland is Villagers' 2013 second album and the moment Conor O'Brien let the project step beyond the solitary folk-room aura of Becoming a Jackal. Written after he became fascinated by synthesizers, drum machines and more fractured electronic possibilities, the record keeps his literary songwriting intact but places it in a stranger landscape. Nothing Arrived is the great open door, a song about disappointment and expectation that moves with graceful resignation, while The Waves, Earthly Pleasure, Judgement Call and Grateful Song show how the album's imagined world flickers between pastoral melody and circuitry. Co-produced with Tommy McLaughlin, Awayland feels like a travelogue through a place built from anxiety, philosophical comedy and luminous arrangement. It earned Villagers a second Mercury Prize nomination, but its deeper importance is artistic: it proved O'Brien's songs could survive expansion and become more mysterious for it.

Awayland matters because it prevented Villagers from being fixed as a delicate folk act after the debut. It kept O'Brien's narrative sensitivity while introducing electronic textures, bigger band dynamics and a more adventurous sense of structure.

For collectors, Awayland is the crucial second step in the Villagers catalogue: the record that follows a Mercury-nominated debut with another ambitious, Mercury-recognised album. Nothing Arrived gives it a lasting emotional anchor, but the full album is the richer story.

Indie folk expanded with synths, drum-machine ideas, full-band swells, melodic melancholy, literary lyrics, soft psychedelia and a tension between acoustic warmth and electronic unease.

Recommended for: Collectors tracing Villagers from the debut into a wider studio sound; Listeners drawn to Nothing Arrived and thoughtful Irish songwriting; Fans of indie folk that absorbs electronic and art-rock detail.

When was Awayland released? Awayland was released in 2013 as Villagers' second studio album. Was Awayland nominated for the Mercury Prize? Yes. Like Becoming a Jackal before it, Awayland was nominated for the Mercury Prize. What is the key song on Awayland? Nothing Arrived is the best-known entry point, though The Waves and Earthly Pleasure show the album's more adventurous side.