Patrick Watson – Wooden Arms

Patrick Watson has, in many interviews and press jaunts, had to explain that he is the frontman of a band, also called Patrick Watson. He had even more explaining to do when the Montreal based four piece that share his name were nominated for a Canadian Juno award for best newcomer in 2007. More praise came later that year, when the bands sophomore record Close to Paradise bagged the Polaris Music Prize (Canada’s less tokenistic version of the Mercury’s). With a sound that flits between mainstream singer songwriter and the slightly more leftfield it would have been easy, with their new found notoriety, for Patrick Watson (the band) to turn in a mainstream “singer songwriter” record with an “indie” edge that would position them somewhere between Damien Rice and James Blunt. A cursory listen to 'Man Like You' with it’s delicate fingerpicked melody and descending bassline, and you might think that they had taken that option. With Watson (the singer’s) Jeff Buckley falsetto and Nick Drake like lilt, it sounds like it could well be the romantic theme to some forthcoming movie, but with an edge.'Man Like You', is, however, far from representative of Wooden Arms as a whole. Where countless singer-songwriters have gone down the “add a bunch of strings” route, few succeed in fully integrating with their orchestral counterparts as well as Patrick Watson do here. Opener 'Fireweeds' starts as a gentle folk lullaby, Watsons hushed vocal surrounded by ethereal ‘ooh’s’ and a skittering drum pattern before building to a crescendo. Elsewhere, 'Beijing' harnesses scattershot percusion and an insistent piano refrain that calls to mind the work of minimalist John Adams, the warm strings swooning around Watson’s hazy vocal delivery. 'Hommage' eschews Watson’s vocal entirely, providing shimmering strings and a mournful cello solo during a brief instrumental elegy.Elsewhere, Patrick Watson take a journey into their namesake singer’s own slightly deranged world. 'Wooden Arms' sees Watson is a Chet Baker like croon that develops into the kind of thing you can imagine being used as a soundtrack to a gangster movie, while on 'Traveling Salesman' we are transported to an abandoned fairground, for a haunted “oompah”, replete with discordant guitar and tremulous singing saws. 'Where The Wild Thing’s Are', sees Watson pay tribute to Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book, and, like that book’s central character, Watson has a playful innocence and vivid imagination. If Spike Jonze fails to use this delicate piano led melody in his upcoming movie, then he’s missed a trick.While for the most part, Patrick Watson are able to keep everything under control, at times everything becomes a little too much, 'Down At The Beach' meandering with no real sense of purpose. However, the sprawling, pedal steel soaked “Machinery of Heaven” more than makes up for it, drawing the album to a close in a chorus of bird song and delicate, distant piano. All credit must go to Watson and his fellow Patrick Watson’s for turning their back on the easy option and choosing to follow their own path, wherever it may lead them. 88%Patrick Watson on Myspace