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Patrick Watson Sings A Song For The 'Broken'

NPR | By Stephen Thompson
Published November 16, 2017 at 9:43 AM CST

Patrick Watson sings with uncommon delicacy, whether his voice is set against grandiose orchestral arrangements or slow builds in which soft piano lines seem to beckon from another room. His songs unfold as journeys wherein every sound has a place and a purpose. Subtlety softens his loudest moments, intensity magnifies his whispers, and grace infuses every note.

Watson last released an album in 2015, when he filled Love Songs For Robots with dreamily rendered, falsetto-rich ruminations on the way human beings are wired. Today, he's following it with a gorgeous new standalone single, "Broken," in which Watson's softly radiant voice is set against spare but insistent pianos. Invoking regret-fueled late-night drives in both the song and its video, "Broken" finds Watson attempting to soothe the bearer of a battered heart — "Do you feel a little broken?" — with the sound of healing and comfort.

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Stephen Thompson
Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)
See stories by Stephen Thompson