Villagers have released ‘So Simpatico’, the second single from their fifth album ‘Fever Dreams‘, and announced a string of in-store gigs.

The song, which comes with a Rosie Barrett-directed music video, is about “devotion – whether to a person, the self, or the art of being”, said frontman Conor O’Brien, adding that a “struggle for authenticity” is at the track’s core.

“We all jammed and recorded an early version with too many words and I took it home and simplified it until it was as pure an expression as possible. It’s a pop song about the essence of love,” O’Brien added. Watch the accompanying music video below.

Director Rosie Barrett added of the video: “’So Simpatico’ is a journey of awakening and self-reflection of a sad clown finding love within himself and sparking that zest for life that was lost some time ago. Creating a visual narrative for this beautiful song was a joy as I have been long admiring Conor’s music. I had the pleasure of working with a brilliant cast and crew in the making and I am very excited to see this video out in the world.”

Additionally, Villagers have announced a run of UK in-store shows for August before they head out on a headline Irish and UK tour this autumn – find tickets here.

Villagers 2021 live dates:

JULY
24 – Latitude Festival, Henham Park, Suffolk

AUGUST
19 – Banquet Records, Kingston – Evening
20 – Rough Trade East, London – Sold out
21 – Relevant Records, Cambridge – Lunchtime
21 – Resident Records, Brighton – Evening
22 – Rough Trade Bristol, Bristol – Lunchtime
22 – Truck, Oxford – Evening
23 – Rough Trade Nottingham, Nottingham – Lunchtime
23 – Vinyl Tap, Huddersfield – Evening
24 – Jumbo Records, Leeds – Lunchtime
24 – Action Records, Preston – Evening
27 – Down the Rabbit Hole Festival, Beuningen, Netherlands
28 – Burgerweeshuis, Deventer, Netherlands

OCTOBER
12 – SWG3, Glasgow
13 – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
15 – Albert Hall, Manchester
16 – SWX, Bristol
17 – Junction, Cambridge
18 – The Glee Club, Birmingham
20 – Chalk, Brighton
21 – Roundhouse, London

NOVEMBER
2 – Opera House, Cork
3 – Set Theatre, Kilkenny (sold out)
4 – Dolans Warehouse, Limerick (sold out)
5 – Black Box, Galway (sold out)
7 – Empire Music Hall, Belfast

DECEMBER
11 – Vicar Street, Dublin (sold out)
12 – Vicar Street, Dublin (sold out)
13 – Vicar Street, Dublin

Reviewing Villagers’ last album ‘The Art Of Pretending To Swim’ upon its release in 2018, NME wrote: “Villagers’ 2010 debut ‘Becoming A Jackal’ came out at a time where acoustic guitar music was in vogue and the charts were flooded with the likes of Mumford and Sons, Ed Sheeran and Ben Howard.

“Eight years on, singer-songwriter Conor O’Brien has proved he’s not a one-trick pony, capable of making more than just dainty guitar music. ‘The Art Of Pretending To Swim’ is the band’s most ambitious record to date.”