Vanity Is Forever

Vanity Is Forever is Crayon Fields frontman Geoffrey O’Connor’s first album under his own name, and his most ambitious, dynamic and sophisticated work yet. O’Connor’s fractured romantic reflections and lustful tributes play out over vast synthscapes, colossal stadium drums and flanged orchestral sweeps, creating a world that is at once ethereal and strikingly vivid. With a combination of restraint and fearless abandon, O’Connor embraces the conflicts of modern love in a manner as ambiguous as it is blunt, and as shameless as it is generous. His songs indulge in ecstasy, love, pride, failure and all the glamorous contradictions they become. He is both an adult with a juvenile mind, and a geriatric in the body of a young man. Painstakingly refined over two years, Vanity Is Forever is O’Connor’s most fully-realised album to date, an epic pop melodrama that shifts seamlessly between seductive high-production dance hits, suave funk joyrides and modern synthetic power balladry. Recently, O’Connor has mesmerised audiences with an extravagant live show of dueling synthesizers, lazers, light sculptures and hypnotic projections. His diverse solo output – under both his own name and previous solo moniker Sly Hats – has seen him handpicked to support a the likes of Fleet Foxes, Jens Lekman, School Of Seven Bells, Andrew Bird and First Aid Kit.

Discover Vanity Is Forever by Geoffrey O'Connor released in 2011. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.