Close but no cigar?
Having beaten off current critical darlings the Arcade Fire and Feist to this year's Polaris Prize (Canada's cooler answer to the Mercury Music Prize) much is expected of the belated U.K. release of Patrick Watson's latest album.
"Close To Paradise" opens with the title track, a shimmering Pink Floyd pastiche of some note. Dreamy swathes of guitar mingle with twinkling glockenspiel and stately sounding piano to mesmerising effect. The off-kilter "Daydreamer" is a little more daring, its skewed and eerie sounding melody twisting and turning the listener inside out. It may seem like a relatively straightforward cabaret pop number at first but it's given an extra special something by a few neat electronic glitches here and there. "Slip Into Your Skin" is much more direct, an opulent chamber-pop ballad it recalls the epic grandeur of Watson's most obvious peer Rufus Wainwright. This number may drift by rather aimlessly but Watson quickly redeems himself with the echo laden splendour of "Giver" which doffs its cap to White album era Beatles with some style. The spooky "Weight of the World" is a slow waltz by comparison; eerie accordion and a distinctly creepy vocal giving this number the aura of a Disney nightmare or a Brothers Grimm fairytale. A line is drawn under the album's opulent opening quarter by "The Storm" a stripped back acoustic number that sounds a little lost within such grand company.
The gloomy "Mr. Tom" is an elegant instrumental that leads almost seamlessly into one of the album's highlights "Luscious Life" which treads the fine-line between pop and experimentation. Watson's voice sounds spookily reminiscent of Jeff Buckley here but musically this number is closer to Sufjan Stevens circa "Seven Swans". "Drifters" starts out promisingly enough and features some neat production but it lacks any real melodic punch preferring to head in a rather ambient direction. "Man Under Sea" is a real treat though, Watson's rich vocal (his best on the album) is matched by a sublime musical arrangement, again piano is prominent throughout but on this occasion it's supported by the odd splash of guitar and a brass section who add some much needed warmth.
"The Great Escape" is similarly lovely, a sweet, tear-jerking ballad that strips things back to mesmerising effect. "Sleeping Beauty" witnesses a return to the dream-like territory created in the album's opening half, but we're talking David Lynch-esque dreams set in near-deserted jazz clubs here and not the type that make any real sense – but those are generally the best kind right? "Bright Shiny Lights" rounds proceedings off in a suitably downbeat fashion proving that Watson can do hushed and contemplative as well as baroque and over-blown.
"Close To Paradise" is an album for the romantic at heart, one to play on lonely autumn evenings when the light outside is fading and there's nothing on the TV. It's sure to be a bona-fide underground hit but it's perhaps a little too obtuse for the mainstream.