Patrick Watson

Close to Paradise

CD

Regular price $16.99 CAD

This is Patrick Watson’s Polaris Prize winning album, featuring classics such as Luscious Life, Slip Into Your Skin, and the Great Escape. Close to Paradise employs unique, delicate arrangements, offering listeners a representation of something bigger.

There was always something sexy about Purgatory. No one wants to hang out in Hell, but was Heaven ever really that appealing, either? How does...

There was always something sexy about Purgatory. No one wants to hang out in Hell, but was Heaven ever really that appealing, either? How does that Talking Heads song go? “Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens…” Close to Paradise is one of those rare gems of an album that can stand as a gateway to wherever you want it to take you.

On the one hand it’s impossible to ignore Patrick Watson as a classic singer-songwriter; the charming young piano-player with the haunting voice. The big impact of an otherwise simple song like “The Great Escape” is a testament to the attention that Patrick’s voice, delivery and sensibility command. Just try and avoid vocal comparisons to Jeff Buckley on “Luscious Life” (inflected with just a bit of Sufjan Stevens-like orchestration), or the penetrating stripped-down gospel of “Bright Shiny Lights”. In some ways Close to Paradise is the coming-out party for one of Canada’s most exciting young vocalists

Maybe most importantly, in the age of playlists, Close to Paradise is actually an album. Make no mistake, there are pop gems that are happy to stand on their own like “Giver” or “Drifters”), but “Bright Shiny Lights” is that much more uplifting after you take the trip that is “Sleeping Beauty”. Records used to do that kind of thing. They still can. You know, if you want them to.

Play it loud, with headphones.

Product Details

Packaging
6-panel digipack with plastic tray, credits printed on inner panel
Label
Secret City Records
Release Date
September 26, 2006

Musicians

Patrick Watson
Piano / Vocals / Drum / Programming
Simon Angell
Electric guitar / Acoustic guitar / Lapsteel / Banjo
Mishka Stein
Electric bass / Upright bass / Glockenspiel
Robbie Kuster
Drums / Percussion / Marimba / Backup vocals / Saw / Piano 
Jean-Nicolas Trottier / Jasmin Fréchette / Geneviève Bouffard
Trombone
Phillipe Legault
Tuba
Louis Pierre Bergeron
French horn
Marjolaine Lambert / Marilou Robitaille / John Corban
Violin
Anne-Marie Leblanc / Mélanie Auclair
Cello
Jonathan Cayu
Organ
Elizabeth Powell / Katie Moore / Brigitte Henry
Backing vocals

Production Credits

Production
Patrick Watson
Recording
Jase Lasek / Dave Smith
Mixing
Jean Massicotte
Mastering
Carl Talbot

Compositions

Close to Paradise
Patrick Watson
Daydreamer
Patrick Watson / Robbie Kuster
Slip Into Your Skin
Patrick Watson
Giver
Patrick Watson / Robbie Kuster
Weight of the World
Patrick Watson
The Storm
Patrick Watson / Simon Angell
Mr. Tom
Patrick Watson
Luscious Life
Patrick Watson / Mishka Stein
Drifters
Patrick Watson
Man Under the Sea
Patrick Watson
The Great Escape
Patrick Watson
Sleeping Beauty
Patrick Watson / Louis-Phillipe Nagy / Mishka Stein
Bright Shiny Lights
Patrick Watson