Patrick Watson - "Bright Shiny Lights"

Patrick Watson is someone surrounded by, immersed in, aesthetic. Ships in bottles lost at sea, old-timey, otherworldly figures, old toy train cars that fall off the sidewalk into the pink sky. See the video for "Drifters" on the MySpace to see what I mean. Someone else who approaches music this way is Tom Waits. However, with Waits, his aesthetic of drunken boardwalk gamblers and trench-coat crooks who meet in dark wet woods with giants who are burying an only son, is completely necessary, and not as a crutch is for walking, but more like putting a face to a name, for enjoying his music (my opinion). But with Watson, not that I don't like the work of Ms. Brigitte Henry, in fact I quite like it, but I feel this song benefits hugely from a context-less, an image-free environment. One that the green drapes of this blog can provide. So, I've brought it into the lab for you guys today so you can see what a swaying, crooning, gem this Patrick Watson is. And you can apply your own aesthetic. For me, I see this being played on Saturday Night Live, with Watson in his taxi-driver hat, nuzzling into the mic, and his back-up singers all doodie'd up in sequins, and the old drummer slamming that snare with the nervous energy that comes with playing that show. (I never claimed my aesthetic would be better, only that it would be my own.)
This is the last track on the downright lovely Close to Paradise. [out Sept. 26th]