Customer Reviews

Close to Paradise

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4 star:		(1)
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Patrick Watson is a Montreal based musician and "Closer to Paradise" is his first United States CD release. "Closer to Paradise" is a cycle of songs, in which each song stands on the strength of Watson's mastery of the songwriting craft. The songs have the intrinsic quality of a hauntingly beautiful cinema soundtrack. Watson's greatest strength is the gift of his soaring voice which is capable of running the multi-octave range from contralto to purest sound of a soprano using a falsetto voice.

Few male singers can hit the notes within mid-soprano range without mimicking the notes with use of a falsetto. Falsetto translated from Italian literally means "false voice". All of my digression is to a point. While technically Patrick Watson sings falsetto his mimicry of the pure soprano is very convincing. It puts in the rarest company of few other vocal prodigies like Tim Buckley, his son Jeff Buckley and Martin Sexton all have fooled even the best tuned ears of the experts.

The song arrangements have elements of the lush sound of baroque pop and the understated minimalism of ambient electronica. The four piece band behind Watson,like Jeff Buckley's former band mates are more than window dressing for his talents but an integral part of Patrick Watson's unique musical vision. Patrick Watson is the hands-down best debut album of 2007 and "Closer to Paradise" is but the opening chapter in a long musical journey.

This is simply an incredible album that deserves so much more recognition.

Mostly piano driven with secondary textures ranging from military drumming to glitch, the mood is set as mellow and light with moments of uplifting bombast. Jeff Buckley, Elbow and Bell X1 are easy comparisons.

A horrible injustice!! I've never written a review on here before but it just seems sacrilege that this work isn't more recognized here. I only just found it (a happenstance listening in barnes and noble of all places) a week or 2 ago. Like most albums that have found themselves in continuous rotation in my car, it takes a time or 2 of complete run through to grow on me. At listen 2 I can say... Excellent. two thumbs up. Bravo. Creative yet simple. Dreamy with just a hint of creepiness. Most importantly; original. Difficult to categorize. I do hear elements of a few other artists in there that are worthy of mention;

Black heart procession
portishead
william elliot Whitmore
Muse (you hear it, don't you?)
and maybe a little Tom waits ( more for physical appearance, lyricism and the weird factor) for good measure

all that equals= one of the best albums I've bought in at least a year.

Patrick Watson's voice is so eerily like that of the dearly departed Jeff Buckley....they both share a range and sweetness that overwhelm me at times. Listen to the passage from around 1:00 to 2:00 minutes on "Daydreamer" (track 2) and you'll hear what I'm talking about. My one quibble with Watson is that he sometimes overproduces his songs. "Daydreamer" is also a good illustration of that point -- the melody is lovely but Watson chooses to clutter it up with all manner of rather low-end special effects that would have been better kept in his synthesizer's memory. "Luscious Life" (track 8) also reminds me slightly of Sufjan Stevens. I'm hard pressed to detect any influence by Debussy or Satie, no matter what Watson's bio says.

This is a promising effort, and highly recommended.

Patrick Watson is amazing, I love just about every song on this album. I would describe most of the music as dark and dreamy. I've sorta got a fetish for that kind of stuff. Just perfect.

Bought this after seeing it on a couple of 'best of 2007' lists and couldn't be happier. Have it in constant rotation and I discover a new favorite song on the album each time through.