LP – Patrick Watson – Uh Oh

1LP – indie canary yellow vinyl

What is life but an endless series of uh ohs? From our earliest childhood accidents to our most overwhelming adult anxieties, its a little phrase that looms large throughout our existence. Just ask Montreal indie-pop maestro Patrick Watson who was recently faced with the biggest uh oh a professional singer could endure.

One morning in the winter of 2023, Patrick woke up to discover that his voicethe angelic instrument that propelled 2006s carnivalesque art-rock opus Close to Paradise to the Polaris Music Prize winners podium had gone completely kaputt. Obviously, I like singing for people, but I was really enjoying my Modular [synth] and diving into instrumental musica natural inclination for Patrick, whos composed over 15 film scores to date.

But then I was like, Oh, itd be cool to write songs for all these different singers that I really want to hear singIll find my way out of this situation that way. Because my voice wasnt supposed to come back. And when it did, I just thought having all these other singers was still a cooler idea for a record than me singing.