Wooden Arms

iTunes Review

After winning Canada’s coveted Polaris Music Prize in 2007 with his second album, Close to Paradise, it'd be understandable if composer/musician/producer Patrick Watson and his band rested on their laurels for a bit. But Wooden Arms (a finalist for the 2009 Polaris) somehow raises the bar, lifting the band’s penchant for blending cabaret, folk, indie pop, and even jazz to new heights. They use out-of-the-ordinary techniques to create magical and emotive sounds, where songs build within songs and delicate atmospherics peel away to reveal strikingly powerful, cinematic soundscapes. There's a palpable ache at the heart of the songs; it seeks solace in the grace of strings and pianos, in the beauty of Watson’s ephemeral falsetto, and in the playfulness of percussion from kitchen utensils and bicycle spokes. There are distorted guitar drones and filigreed acoustic finger picking, clanking percussion topped with sibilant cymbal thrashing and warm burbling marimbas at play, gentle banjos that feel like sunshine, pianos filled with tension. It's another remarkable point in the wondrous evolution of Watson and his very talented band.