PATRICK WATSON – WOODEN ARMS
The term “boy wonder” gets bandied about a fair bit these days, and it’s a dangerous suggestion to make; however Canadian DIY musician Patrick Watson’s craft is such that one can’t help be staggered by his affinity for instrumentation and melody. This latest record is awash with layers of found sounds and orchestral flirtings very akin to the work of French Jon Brion, with a hint of the “new folk” sound of the American experimentalists (see Grizzly Bear, Andrew Bird, Canon Blue etc). Watson’s flute-like tenor voice croons through this material with a sneaky confidence – witness the Weil-via-Waits lilt of the title track Wooden Arms, its old fashioned melody plays like a kind of serene nightmare for this tale of a love-struck puppet. Patrick Watson’s four-piece band handle his material fantastically, infusing just the right dosage of odd noise and warmth to his carefully constructed monologues. His often dark subject matter is kept above the level of the morose with playful interplay between the strings and woodwinds and distorted guitars and voices; such as in the instrumental Hommage and the heart-stoppingly beautiful Big Bird in a Small Cage. This record will prove to be a long-stayer; it’s a subtle and slow-growing work that is refreshingly whole in concept and execution, and proof once again that the great North has a swag of endlessly talented musicians serving to musically document our world in a most lateral and beautiful fashion.
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