Patrick Watson – Better in the Shade

Patrick Watson continues his work on placid, low-key waves. Here, the Montreal songwriter and musician leads us into the shadows of overly bright lights, overly violent phenomena, and other peaks of intensity. It’s… Better in the Shade, as he suggests it through five gentle songs. The impressionist harmonies and folk melodies are more or less the same as what we’re used to; the countertenor voice is still the same, and so is the songs’ framework. Watson also relies on his usual contributors: Ariel Engle (duet on “Height of the Falling”), Mika Stein (bass, etc.), Sarah Pagé (harp), Andrew Barr (drums), and the Cobalt String Quartet. The evolution rather lies in the keyboards, which he started using a while ago, but which finds here a singularity. This vaporous and delicate EP invites us to contemplate the small details of life and to draw a maximum of substance from them.