With their latest single “Love Will Live On,” Nova Scotian four-piece Villages abandon the stress of everyday life to live idealistically, embracing heritage and natural landscapes at the same time.
Stream: “Love Will Live On” – Villages
We all have those moments where you just want to drop everything and leave it all behind. “Love Will Live On” is a daydream on just how good it could be if you actually did it.
Do you ever have that sudden urge to pack your bags and go settle somewhere far from the city? You watch your money disappear on things not that are not that necessary but that you feel are needed in order to stay on top of the action around you. Or maybe you live somewhere that just doesn’t excite you anymore and you have the desire to create new adventures elsewhere. In the imagination, said place is likely a utopia free from troubles and, as long as you are there with the things and people you love, nothing can go wrong.
I said “there’s nobody but you”
You said “I feel the same way too,
In this life we’ve got no chance”
And you pushed the table back
You said “you gotta get out of your way”
And put me under the light instead
And you said, “you and I
We’ll find a piece of land
We’ll find peace of mind
We’ll make love in the fields of heather wild
And build a quiet life, on an island in the Maritimes
We’ll be happy when the winds blow strong
And our love will live on”
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Love Will Live On,” the latest single by Nova Scotian quartet Villages (out October 7, 2022 via Sonic Records). Set to a foot-tapping, folky rhythm and coated with optimism, the song is about abandoning the stress of everyday life to live amongst the simple and gratifying things.
“We all have those moments where you just want to drop everything and leave it all behind,” Villages tell Atwood Magazine. ““Love Will Live On” is a daydream on just how good it could be if you actually did it.”
The song is written in first person, the narrator recounting a memory with the person they love. “It calls out to me now, through the fog somehow, I’m too poor to be buying this round, there’s got to be another way,” go the opening lines, setting a relatable scene of feeling lost and hopeless amidst societal pressures. The response to this is moving to a secluded picturesque environment where they can pass each day in each other’s company as though the only thing that matters is the sentiment of feeling alive. While “Love Will Live On” seeps with romance, in the lyrics and the happy-go-lucky ambiance of the instrumentation, it is also emblematic of a broader sense of escapism and how emotions of affection can be not only love for someone but also the idealistic vision of a life elsewhere.
Villages is a band from Cape Breton Island, situated on the outskirts of Nova Scotia, Canada.
It’s an isolated place full of greenery, pristine water and people who are positive and amicable. It’s the type of destination you would likely go to when wanting to escape the stress and chaos of fast-paced living in order to be at one with the simple things. The accompanying video to “Love Will Live On” is set in Newfoundland, not too far from Cape Breton, and evokes a similar kind of mood. Focus is put on rural living, on boats that move calmly in a cute village, and fields golden in the sunlight.
It’s next month now
Still in the fog somehow
It’s the best thought we ever had
To hell with your mom and dad
This is just the way it is now
I push you under the light instead
And reminded you that
You and I
We’ll find a piece of land
We’ll find peace of mind
We’ll make love in the fields of heather wild
And build a quiet life, on an island in the Maritimes
We’ll be happy when the winds blow strong
And our love will live on
“Love Will Live On” features on their forthcoming album Dark Island, due for release in February next year. The album’s title is taken from a traditional Scottish folk song and refers to a metaphorical place that you reach when at the end of your life, a place that belongs purely to you as an accumulation of all your thoughts and experiences good and bad. The idea of Celtic traditions and faraway places is at the core of Villages and this album. The traditional musical influences are reimagined into feel-good folk of the present day and the ambiance of Cape Breton Island comes across in the imagery of nature, the fields, waves, trees, rivers, and rocks.
Together the members, Matt Ellis, Travis Ellis, John Pearo, and Archie Rankin, put spotlight on the Celtic culture of Cape Breton Island, respecting its heritage and helping revive it for new generations. This is exemplified in songs such as “Play the Fiddle All Night,” a slower, more emotive track where the strong accent of the vocals are accompanied by the lyrics ‘Play for me the ‘Dark Island’ / till the dew lifts off the clover/ play the fiddle all night.’
Dark Island follows their self-titled debut album which was released in 2019. The similarities are still there, it being at the core of the band, but this time the music feels more developed and energized. There are the songs that feel heavily traditional and then there are others with easy-going pop touches. Villages was formed when the members, previously the punk pop Mardeen, decided to dive into their roots and embrace the traditions and natural imagery that’s intrinsic to certain aspects of east coast Canada.
While “Love Will Live On” encompasses beauty and depicts island life as place of tranquility, nature isn’t always as amicable as we perceive it.
In recent weeks, Cape Breton and Newfoundland were hit by a tropical storm that had destroyed this part of the country. What has the air of blissfulness suddenly becomes victimized and results in torn down houses and an absence of electricity. The lyrics ‘We’ll be happy when the winds blow strong/ And our love will live on’ consequently takes on a new meaning. As long as you are with the people you love or the things that warm your heart, everything will feel like it’s going be ok.
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Stream: “Love Will Live On” – Villages
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