Watch: Villagers - "The Waves"

Irish band Villagers are back from a relatively long radio silence while they worked on new stuff with a brand new single. The first new music from the band since the release of Becoming A Jackal is kind of everything the album wasn't. Folky and built around Conor O'Brien's poetic songcraft, "The Waves" is more or less the antithesis of the folky sound I associated with Villagers. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. "The Waves" is a sort of synthy semi beat-driven track that still manages to serves as the appropriate vehicle for O'Brien's lyricism.

Even among its poppy dressings, "The Waves" still shambles around with the sparse, haunting effect Villagers are most known for. It's definitely a new direction for the band but the keystone of the band's effectivenes is still present and that's good enough for me. The jury's still out on if I'd like an full album of the stuff but "The Waves" certainly makes a strong case for it.

Check out Villagers' colorful video for "The Waves" here:


The official single release for "The Waves" happens on October 22nd but you can, if you're so inclined, purchase the digital single on iTunes right now here.