Patrick Watson – Adventures in Your Own Backyard
Categories : Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 4 / 5 Reviewer: Sean Marchetto |
Adventures in Your Own Backyard is a delicately layered delight. Patrick Watson’s whispy vocals on tracks like ‘Morning Sheets’ carry a dream-like quality about themselves, reminiscent of Dirty Projectors or Bon Iver, and wrap the listener in a soft sonic cocoon. While the group has toned down their use of experimental instruments and sprawling compositional structures, their third album is still a far cry from a straight-ahead pop album. In fact, as charming and delightful as the music is, it is perhaps a little too ephemeral, for few moments lodge themselves distinctly in the ear, and one has to give Adventures in Your Own Backyard many conscientious listens before it yields any memorable treasures.
But once it does, songs like the title track and ‘Blackwind’ become bubbles of delight. The latin horns on ‘Lighthouse’ recalls Danger Mouse’s Rome soundtrack and suggests further, even more exotic horizons to come.
When Coleridge dreamed of the stately pleasure domes of Xanadu, Adventures in Your Own Backyard was likely his soundtrack.
