WHEN a band releases two albums in the space of less than a year, it often comes with a sense of dread; the kind that conceptual ambitions, experimentation, or meeting label requirements can tend to give rise to.

Thankfully, Conor O’Brien, the creative driver of these Irish indie-folk merchants, has a defter touch than that. The quickfire follow-up to last April’s blunt-but-fresh Darling Arithmetic sees him translate that album’s basic arrangement to material garnered from Villagers’ back catalogue, all laid down in a single day in the studio. And, bizarrely, paring down the sound has actually strengthened many of these songs.

The porcelain-fragile versions of Set The Tigers Free, Memoir, The Waves and Everything I Am Is Yours portray them as you feel they should be portrayed: delicate, unconstrained, and heartfelt.

Whether it was O’Brien’s intention for a record meant to be raw, bare, and vulnerable to end up with such a professional sheen is debatable, but it’s stumbled its way to success. And any album that includes such an affecting version of Wichita Lineman as this one does is always going to have plenty in its favour.

Villagers play Leeds Brudenell Social Club on February 3.