Patrick Watson’s Close to Paradise ~ Best Canadian Album of the Year? Review here

Last year the Canadian Polaris Prize, admittedly not the most important award in music, went to Final Fantasy’s album He Poos Clouds.  This year, according to the Queen’s Journal at Queen’s University, the prize went to Patrick Watson for his album Close to Paradise. The album is not bad if you’re looking to slow down your collection a tad.

This news of this award popped up just after I had spent the afternoon pondering why songs that use the word paradise are so terrible yet so memorable.  Well, I decided to make this new album my first iPhone iTunes download (I did the new phone update last night and it about killed my phone as it sent it into lock doww, requiring a complete rebuild from the beginning).

The song names, like the album title, are less than inspired.  You’ve got Slip Into Your Skin, The Storm, Daydreamer, The Great Escape, Weight of the World, and Man Under the Sea, among others.  They’re the names you might find coming from a twenty-something with talent who dreams them up before somebody points out that more than just the music has to be good.

But with that said, the music is pretty good overall if you like kind of slower melancholy-bordering-on-twenty-something-angst sounds.  And a lot of people do.  Don’t worry because it’s not as angsty as, say, Joshua Radin.  In terms of what others are saying, I’m not sure that I agree, or even want to agree, with the iTunes review that this is some kind of Cold Play for hipsters.  I’m not sure which party that really insults, if either.

I’m not really sure what to make of the album artwork.  It makes me want to compare it to the Modest Mouse album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, where the hot air balloon is carrying away the anchor.  There’s some connection between the two.  This might be the ship that Modest Mouse died in and floated off from.

The only thing that I can decipher about Watson’s cover is that it’s some sort of medium to distopia, which is also kind of what his album is too.  This aspect can be completely enjoyable to the right person.  If you listen to the previews before you buy, you’ll know if it’s you.  So what about individual songs?

Drifters is great, and touches a bit on the feeling of some of Arcade Fire’s sounds.  The Storm, at the very beginning, actually reminds me of some of the music from Carlos Gardel, the classic-bordering-on-ancestral Tango singer from Argentina (this is good thing).  I like The Great Escape in spite of its name, and Giver is the best song on the album.  Weight of the World is a scary clown merry go round.  Man Under the Sea (yes, the name is bad) and Luscious Life are up there with Giver and show an even greater range of emotion.  Finally, be warned that Sleeping Beauty will probably put your half-drunk guests to sleep if you play it at 11:00 PM at a dinner party.

According to the article, "Watson’s atmospheric record successfully beat out bigger-name shortlist contenders including the Arcade Fire, Feist and Joel Plaskett."  Personally, I prefer Arcade Fire, but I think that they just sound more mature.  Patrick Watson will progress if they keep their passion and shed a bit of the angsty escapism.

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Posted on September 28, 2007
Filed Under Music, Sea and Oceans |

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