Patrick Watson

It’s difficult…no...impossible…to escape the Jeff Buckley comparisons when listening to Patrick Watson’s new Adventures in Your Own Backyard album. This talented Canadian group/singer creates ethereal chamber pop music, much like Buckley did, mixed in with folk strains, while singing pretty songs in a high and beautiful voice. It’s a little confusing because the leader’s name is also the group’s name. Once you get past that, though, you’re in for some mighty creative music.

Although the most of the music these four musicians assemble together is pretty stuff, “Step out for a While” steps away from all the fragile prettiness for a song that alternates between lovely singing and playing, and the sort of clinking and clanking instrumentation you might more likely hear on a Tom Waits album. Of course, Watson doesn’t have the sandpaper vocal cords Waits does – he’d need to smoke like a smokestack every day for the rest of his life to achieve that sort of rough vocal ambience.

The album title is said to realistically reflect the circumstances under which it was tracked. The project was recorded in Watson’s apartment in the Plateau neighborhood of Montreal. This locale was said to be selected because the group wanted to get back to the city after a lot of touring. On a more practical level, this situation also allowed Watson to take care of his two young children. Thankfully, though, Watson was not inspired to create an alternative rock expression of Eddie Murphy’s Daddy Day Care film. That would have almost certainly been a disaster!

Song titles, like “Morning Sheets,” “Noisy Sunday” and especially “Swimming Pools” suggest music inspired and influenced by time spent in the backyard. Sonically, it’s also the sort of recording perfectly suited to relaxing out back on a summer afternoon. Therefore, pour yourself something cool, listen to this album on your MP3 player and create your own personal backyard adventures, with Patrick Watson as your soundtrack.