View Larger
Rate it!
Avg: 4.0 (129 ratings)
- Date Released: October 3, 2006
- Genre: Alternative/Punk
- Style: Indie Rock, Alternative Experimental
- Label: Secret City Records / Justin Time
The rock & roll dream made flesh?
-
We Say...
Sensitive Californian Watson hitches ride to vogue-ish Montreal scene, wows local luminaries with jaw-dropping performances and — presto — there’s another celestial star in the galaxy of alterna-rock. Is this the rock & roll dream made flesh or more proof that, a decade on from his tragic dip in the Mississippi, the loss of Jeff Buckley is still felt as keenly as ever?
Patrick Watson may be a piano man at heart (confusingly, he fronts a four-piece band that shares his name) but his songs positively shiver with longing and lust. Don’t let the tinkling Bavarian waltz "Weight of the World" fool you into thinking he’s only here to work shifts at the Cabaret Café when Rufus Wainwright goes missing; once the woozy, Sgt. Pepper-era harmonies of “Man under the Sea” haul you in, there’s no alternative other than to be sucked into the vortex of Watson’s musical whirlpool. Deep breath then.
Unlike so many singer-songwriters who present themselves as plaid-clad Atlases, struggling with the weight of the world, with Watson that crushing feeling never arrives. Instead, by the time he croons “For a minute of the day/ You taste so sweet” during the shimmering baroque pop of “Luscious Life,” you realise Close to Paradise is the sort of album people will cherish in student dorms and hash-filled bedrooms long after this year’s other fast-fads have run their course. Admittedly, this artful mix of steel-pedal guitar, glitch-cognizant drums and vocal crescendos marks him out as flavour of the month, but Watson seems headed somewhere far more other-worldly.
Fame and fortune may already loom on the horizon, but Watson — as he admits in "The Great Escape" — is more interested in charting a path toward unknown pleasures somewhere “far from all the things that we are.” -
They Say...
Before starting his quartet, Patrick Watson explored a variety of musical forms, from rock to electronica, and though Close to Paradise is clean indie pop, these other influences show up in the album frequently. A Coldplay for the hipster crowd (that's X&Y-era Coldplay, not Parachutes Coldplay), Watson and his band write lush, ethereal, spacey melodies that swell into Jeff Buckley-esque symphonies or relax into measured shoegazer riffs; there are hints of ambient too, the way everything tends to swirl and coalesce, the occasional subtle drum programming, the stuttering loops, but there's also chamber pop in the string arrangements and piano arpeggios and even, at times, a tendency toward cabaret. But despite all these things happening, the album never comes across as busy or overwhelming. In part this is thanks to the Canadian folk influence -- the moan of the lap steel, the flitting banjo -- that sweeps over everything like a prairie wind, Neil Young allusions and all, grounding the pieces in simple chord changes or wisping lines, but it's also very much because of guitarist Simon Angell (from Watson's high school ska band Gangster Politics), who adds his lightly distorted electric guitar at just the right moments, just when the dreamy piano seems to be moving too far outward into unstructured territory. In "Drifters," for example, Watson's trippy vocals echo off one another, but before it becomes too dancey, Angell comes in with strong, classical chords, pulling the piece toward something lush and orchestrated like what the Dears, rather than BT, might do. With "Slip into Your Skin" he uses his instrument to different effect, waiting until the song is more than halfway done before he plays his slow but frantic-sounding riff; it's sparse but it's deliberate and necessary, short lines of dialogue that bring the plot together with the characters and the setting. In fact, Close to Paradise plays like a film soundtrack more than anything else, from the Cirque du Soleil vamping of "Weight of the World" to the Peter Pan-esque twinkling of "Daydreamer," backing the story of some sunken-shouldered traveler as he walks, or floats, across the plains. Entrancing, to say the least.
“ The indie iTunes — Hardcore music fans are migrating to eMusic, the iTunes Music Store's cheaper, cooler cousin.”
Rolling Stone
eMusic Tip
Paid downloads are counted towards an album discount but free downloads are not.
COMPLETE FOR FREE!
You can download the rest of the tracks from this album for free! Just click the Complete Album button.
We’re sorry this album can only be downloaded using paid subscription download credits.
We recommend you Save it for Later by clicking the Save for Later button shown just above this message. For a list of related albums you can download right now, check out these recommendations.
| 01. |  |
Close to Paradise |
5:02 |
|
| 02. | |
Daydreamer |
4:34 |
|
| 03. | |
Slip Into Your Skin |
3:37 |
|
| 04. | |
Giver |
3:27 |
|
| 05. | |
Weight of the World |
4:40 |
|
| 06. | |
The Storm |
3:12 |
|
| 07. | |
Mr. Tom |
2:48 |
|
| 08. | |
Luscious Life |
3:09 |
|
| 09. | |
Drifters |
4:27 |
|
| 10. | |
Man Under the Sea |
3:29 |
|
| 11. | |
The Great Escape |
3:07 |
|
| 12. | |
Sleeping Beauty |
5:33 |
|
| 13. | |
Bright Shiny Lights |
2:34 |
|
13 Total Tracks, 49:39 Total Length
Loading...
Playlists If you like Patrick Watson, check out these member playlists
Explore music recommended by Patrick Watson fans
Credits
- Carl Talbot - Mastering // Patrick Watson - Piano // Patrick Watson - Vocals // Patrick Watson - Producer // Patrick Watson - Drum Programming // Patrick Watson - Mixing // Simon Angell - Guitar (Acoustic) // Simon Angell - Banjo // Simon Angell - Guitar (Electric) // Simon Angell - Lap Steel Guitar // Jean Massicotte - Singer // Jean Massicotte - Engineer // Jean Massicotte - Mixing // Mélanie Auclair - Cello // Sébastien Blais Montpetit - Engineer // Anne Marie Leblanc - Cello // Anne Marie Leblanc - String Quartet // Robbie Kuster - Percussion // Robbie Kuster - Piano // Robbie Kuster - Drums // Robbie Kuster - Marimba // Robbie Kuster - Vocals (Background) // Robbie Kuster - Saw // Elizabeth Powell - Vocals (Background) // Louis Pierre Bergeron - French Horn // Louis Pierre Bergeron - Horn Ensemble // Genevive Boufford - Trombone // Genevive Boufford - Horn Ensemble
Choose from over 6 million
music downloadseMusic features legendary and emerging artists in every genre: classic rock to classical,indie to international, soundtracks to spiritual, jazz to country and many more.
MP3 downloads work on any digital media player
With eMusic, you OWN your music without any restrictions. Burn music to a CD, play it on your computer, mobile phone or any digital media player - including iPod®, Zune® and Walkman®.
Songs available for 50¢ or less
eMusic subscriptions start at just $11.99 a month for 24 downloads - that's just 50¢ per song! And it gets better from there - our plans go as low as 42¢ per song!
Music Discovery
eMusic is about discovery. We make finding new music fun again with music recommendations from our award-winning team of music experts, member playlists and new music features.
Cancel anytime
With all the great music and site features we're pretty sure you will love eMusic. If not, no problem. You can cancel at any time and keep the music you have downloaded.
© 1992 - 2009 All Media Guide, LLC