After four albums of mostly stripped-down falsetto, Patrick Watson says he wanted his fifth to be a “science fiction R&B meets Vangelis erotica with a zest of folk kind of record”. Thus, the Montrealer’s gentle sound has been decorated with the sort of sonic baubles you’d associate with Coldplay’s production team: banks of echo and layers of instrumentation. Such a self-consciously epic approach works for the quicksilver funk of Places You Will Go, but the fragile Good Morning Mr Wolf rather drowns in sonic soup. The album title refers to the emotion that differentiates us from the machines we use every day, and Watson invests lyrics such as “Don’t feel at home in this world any more” with gossamer, floaty melancholy. Some rough occasionally mingles with the smooth: Bowie-like glam guitar riffs or ear-juddering sub-bass. Fans of his previous work may find the kitchen-sink approach confusing, but the likes of Grace and the title track are pearls amid the fog.
