Love Songs For Robots
Despite its title, Patrick Watson\'s *Love Songs for Robots* is the furthest thing from metal machine music. The singer/songwriter\'s fifth album is intense, melancholic, and wistful, full of hushed masterpieces and growing ambition. Watson pores over emotions and acoustic guitar and piano, adding layers of synth and electronics, all the while adjusting minute details with the patience and precision of a surgeon. “Good Morning Mr. Wolf” and “In Circles” show Watson’s grasp of power and grace. His falsetto is a secret weapon, adding another layer of grandeur to these songs.
Love Songs For Robots is the highly anticipated fifth record from Patrick Watson. The music was recorded at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles and Studio Pierre Marchand in Montreal. Of the record, some of which was debuted at private concerts in small loft spaces, Watson explains, “I started thinking about things in a very mechanical way. I found it interesting how we would use our senses to come up with an emotional reaction. As you get older you get to know yourself better and I realized that a lot of my emotional reactions were mechanical responses and that was hugely influential. I didn’t want to be a robot. But the reason why we are superior to computers is that we have emotions and I realized that emotions are mechanical so the only thing left between us and robots is curiosity and inspiration – and I don’t think you can program that into a computer. That’s definitely where I was at when I started writing the record.”
The Canadian balladeer's 5th LP sees his ambitious melodic pop take a turn towards longer, darker tracks, with mixed results.
Patrick Watson's albums have followed a pattern of subtle, beautiful song craft that combines his ethereal falsetto with lush soundscapes drawing on influences ranging from classical to electronic.
Just who is Patrick Watson? For the best part of the last decade the Canadian singer/songwriter has produced a stream of brittle, gorgeous records that fly high over many of his contemporaries.