The always fascinating Villagers return with an album that brings the power of their live experience to the fore.
‘Where Have You Been All My Life?’ is an interesting proposition as it’s not a straightforward live album, and neither is it just an acoustic, unplugged album. Instead, it’s more of a re-imagining.
Villagers have taken a selection of their songs and challenged themselves to add new dimensions to their live interpretations, and the results are pretty impressive. Now, they haven’t reinvented the wheel here, instead it’s more of a reintroduction to what made that round thing so exciting in the first place.
The live setting and production gives these songs a depth and emotion which is not missing on the recordings, but is merely subdued or displayed differently. This is what makes the record so compelling; it still looks like the Villagers, sounds like the Villagers and excites like the Villagers, it’s just not how they usually roll.
In this Conor O’Brien takes time to breathe and let the songs find a new direction naturally. Live is a space in which his band, and these songs, seem to come to life and thrive. Running naked and wild, they now sound now free and full of life. In many respects it’s reminiscent of Bombay Bicycle Club’s ‘Flaws‘ – in its intimacy and its reflective approach to their own material whilst almost having a country feel without any of the trappings or obvious stylistic stereotypes.
‘Set The Tigers Free‘ is a wonderful first step on the road to brilliance – beautiful and sombre, it sets the tone of things to come. ‘Everything I Am Is Yours‘ changes pace and direction, its new, more upbeat shuffle giving it more passion, more in keeping with the song’s own title.
And things just keep on a-changin’: ‘My Lighthouse‘ is now challenging, while ‘Courage‘ is as brilliant as it is jittery and glittery – you can’t help but be smitten. Things don’t stop there. ‘Memoir‘s pointed new arrangement can barely contain the anger bristling beneath its surface, finale ‘Wichita Lineman‘ – a seemingly odd choice for a cover – definitely hasn’t lost any of its beauty or oddly compelling power.
Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb’s powerful ballad is a truly cinematic piece of music, and not one that you would imagine would benefit from losing its sweeping scope. Let’s be honest, without that you’d imagine a song about a lineman from Wichita might end up seeming somewhat ridiculous. Yet while this version may have lost the original’s lush grandiosity, Villagers have understood the intention and ignored the gimmickry to deliver something that is in many ways more tangible than the original.
All of which leaves ‘The Waves‘, the album’s most powerful and amazing moment. Like a rising tide of emotion, it builds to a powerful crescendo of emotional release and thrusting musicality. This is what everyone is here for.
After ‘Waves’ you can’t help but feel you’ve witnessed something as it delivers that tingly, hairs on the back of the neck moment you get when great live shows really hit their stride. That’s what ‘Where Have You Been All My Life?’ is, it’s the Villagers stretching out and hitting new speeds. What makes it even more enjoyable is trying to keep up with where their imaginations and inventiveness will take them next.
This is how you make a live album.