Patrick Watson è, insomma, un artista dalle incredibili risorse e doti artistiche, in continuo movimento, che oggi annuncia BETTER IN THE SHADE, il suo settimo album in studio, che uscirà in digitale via Secret City Records.Patrick Watson che da sempre compone, suona e registra i suoi album con la sua storica collaboratrice Mishka Stein, giunge a questo album dopo i prolifici ultimi due anni - nonostante la pandemia mondiale - in cui ha rilasciato diverse canzoni (A Mermaid in Lisbon, Que reste-t'il de nos amours, Lost with You) che hanno fatto seguito al suo precedente pluripremiato album, Wave, pubblicato nel 2019. Più recentemente, Patrick ha suonato a Londra, al Barbican con la BBC Orchestra e sarà il protagonista di Le Poisson Rouge a New York il 31 marzo. Presto verranno annunciate altre date dei concerti.

Come affema Patrick, il nuovo album “is about negotiating a world where you don’t know what’s real anymore”. “I really spent a lot of time reading to improve my lyrics for this record”, he says. “I was very inspired by Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson, The Waves by Virginia Woolf and Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin. The lyrics are a collection of little thoughts that were pacing in my head. We worked hard on rebuilding the tones of our arrangements and we brought a bigger electronic component to the music” he continues. “With the addition of modular synths, we were able to find a warmer and more touching approach to the electronics, that feel as acoustic as the rest of the instruments and move like liquid. Basically, I went back to school for the last two years to be able to bring something new ha-ha. Andrew Barr from the Barr Brothers joined us on drums for this record, it’s a pleasure to play music with such a great musician.
We were so lucky to have Elisabeth Perrault bring us such amazing artwork for this record. She’s a young, talented artist and I imagine we’ll be seeing a lot of her in the future.".

Ad anticipare il disco, l'inedito "Height of the Feeling" che, come afferma lo stesso cantautore “is about using intimacy as a compass when you feel out of your skin.
I sometimes just have trouble without affection to ground me. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, it just is. I was lucky to be able to co-write this with Ariel Engle from La Force. She’s so much fun to work with. We just did loads of improv takes on one mic and giggled together the whole time.".