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Patrick Watson VibeZ

Seven tracks from a Montreal songwriter with a falsetto like a held breath. Patrick Watson is the kind of artist people discover by accident and then keep for life.

The most cinematic songwriter in Canada

Patrick Watson leads the Montreal band of the same name, and won the Polaris Music Prize — Canada's major critical award — for Close to Paradise in 2007. His music is difficult to file: chamber pop with strong classical instincts, orchestrated with real care, and centred on a high, fragile voice that he uses more like an instrument than a delivery system for lyrics.

He has scored films and worked extensively in television and advertising placement, which is how a great many people first hear him without knowing whose record it is. That is worth stating plainly rather than as a criticism — his music is genuinely cinematic, and it does the job because the writing is strong.

What to listen for

"Je te laisserai des mots" is the phenomenon. Recorded in 2010 for a short film, it sat quietly for over a decade and then became enormous on TikTok, accumulating streaming numbers that dwarf everything else in his catalogue. It is barely two minutes long, sung in French, and consists of almost nothing — piano, a whispered vocal, and a melody that will not leave.

"The Great Escape" is the other one people know, largely through television placement, and it is a genuinely beautiful piece of writing about loss.

"Lost With You" and "Sit Down Beside Me" are the warmest things here — both closer to conventional songwriting than his more experimental material.

"Strange Rain" and "Brigitte's Theme" show the compositional side, and "Look At You" is the most direct.

Throughout, listen to the arrangements rather than the voice. There is usually a great deal happening underneath — bowed strings, prepared piano, unusual percussion — and it is mixed low enough that it registers as atmosphere until you go looking for it.

Go deeper

Close to Paradise (2006) is the Polaris winner and the place to start. Adventures in Your Own Backyard (2012) is the warmest, and Wave (2019) — written after the death of his mother and the end of a long relationship — is the most affecting.

For neighbours: Rufus Wainwright shares the Montreal setting and the classical ambition, Sufjan Stevens the orchestral instincts, and Jeff Buckley the falsetto and the fragility.

Canada's Polaris Prize is itself a useful discovery tool — the shortlists have been consistently better guides to interesting Canadian music than any chart.

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