Patrick Watson announces new album with first single "Height of the Feeling"

"Height of the Feeling" is Watson's first outing of the year, following 2021's "A Mermaid in Lisbon", and is also the first taster of Watson's forthcoming album Better in the Shade.

Watson says the new track is "about using intimacy as a compass when you feel out of your skin." He adds, "I sometimes just have trouble without affection to ground me. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, it just is. I was lucky to be able to co-write this with Ariel Engle from La Force. She’s so much fun to work with. We just did loads of improv takes on one mic and giggled together the whole time."

Better in the Shade will follow Watson's 2019 album Wave, and is, in Watson's own words, "about negotiating a world where you don’t know what’s real anymore."

Watson continues, "I really spent a lot of time reading to improve my lyrics for this record, I was very inspired by Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson, The Waves by Virginia Woolf and Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin. The lyrics are a collection of little thoughts that were pacing in my head. We worked hard on rebuilding the tones of our arrangements and we brought a bigger electronic component to the music. With the addition of modular synths, we were able to find a warmer and more touching approach to the electronics, that feel as acoustic as the rest of the instruments and move like liquid. Basically, I went back to school for the last two years to be able to bring something new ha-ha. Andrew Barr from the Barr Brothers joined us on drums for this record, it’s a pleasure to play music with such a great musician."

Tracklist:

1. Better in the Shade
2. Height of the Feeling
3. Ode to Vivian
4. Little Moments
5. Blue
6. La La La La La
7. Stay