As an exclamation, ‘Uh Oh’ sounds mild, a restrained, almost child-like anticipation of trouble rather than a full-blooded, sweary response to an immediate problem. However, there is nothing half-hearted or childish about Patrick Watson’s ‘Uh Oh’, a sophisticated set of eleven compositions that feel magically alive. The album and its title were inspired by a period of nearly three months during which Watson lost the ability to speak or sing and was unsure whether his voice would ever return. As a consequence, he planned a record on which other people would sing his songs and nine of the tunes do include guest vocalists, including Martha Wainwright.
Although far from a household name, Watson has achieved a huge amount during a 20-year career. His ‘Je te laisserie des mots’ became the first French language song to achieve more than a billion streams on Spotify and other tunes of his have been used on successful television shows like ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and ‘This Is Us’. Watson is also an in-demand composer who has scored 15 films including Wim Wenders’ ‘Perfect Days’ and Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Polytechnique’. Despite this impressive CV, it would not be hyperbole to suggest that ‘Uh Oh’ is his finest work to date. Its attention to detail is apparent in the revelation that Watson spent two months studying Cardi B’s ‘Up’ to get the mix just right and while that would be a long way from the first record that most listeners to ‘Uh Oh’ would spot as an influence, it is salient in pointing to how Watson combines his talent for traditional composition with modern production techniques.
‘Uh Oh’ gets off to a mighty start with ‘Silencio’, a duet with November Ultra. Her parts are sung in Spanish and sound neo-classical and otherworldly while dealing with her own experience of voice loss, the result of her body shutting down after her first tour. It makes a superb counterpoint to Watson’s caress of a voice and his description of the sometimes-tormenting thoughts that silence induced (“but I can’t stop making this shit up in my head”) while also acknowledging the benefits of enforced quiet (“the funny thing is they think you’re smarter when you shut your mouth.”) The quality of the production design is clear from the way his analog synths and piano create their own distinct world while Mishka Stein’s guitar and Oliver Fairfield’s drums have such a clarity to each movement. The minimalist approach to recording the album of using just two microphones and each track in one or two takes works perfectly. Stylistically, the song is reminiscent of Andrew Bird at his best and one of its curiosities is that it feels longer than its four-minute duration, not due to boredom but because so much is happening all of which is totally immersing.
‘Peter and the Wolf’ continues by successfully cramming so many details and ideas into a short duration. Inspired by the combination of a discussion in the woods about with his partner about her desire to rewrite Sergei Prokofiev’s musical composition for children, the pitch-black of the night-time forest and a New Orleans encounter with a car gliding through the streets with crazy low-end purring from it, the song is an immense concoction of auto-tuned vocals, modular synths, sax and clarinet. It is unnerving and magnificent.
Watson is joined on ‘The Wandering’ by MARO who represented Portugal at 2022’s Eurovision Song Contest. The song captures his feeling of being a ghost touring and observing the world. Cinematic in its scope, it moves from a bossa nova groove to a breathtaking set piece for strings. ‘Choir in the Wires’ represents a variation on that theme, the telephone wires observing dramas (“a thousand conversations hanging in the air”). To rolling piano, Watson’s gorgeous croon captures the sadness as “mom just got off the phone / her son’s not coming home” while the trumpet lament is exquisite. On the zestful title track, four trumpets and a choir add to the impact. There is magic to his description, “my telephone learned how to sing / does that mean the cables and wires will start to dream.”
‘The Lonely Nights’ is more subdued. Watson’s voice, in collaboration with La Force, is a lament. The dynamics are perfect as the music almost subsides as he quietly yearns, “I just didn’t want to let you down.” In contrast, ‘Ami Imaginaire’, is a primarily electronic number, bubbling, popping and distorting, albeit allowing a couple of pauses where Klô Pelgag’s vocals are given primacy and are all the more emotional for it. The shifts in mood and tempo continue on the brief ‘Postcards’ with strummed guitar leading and background woodwind, synths and piano giving the acknowledgement “I caught on fire / called 911 / you showed up / you were the only one” an understated emotion. ‘House on Fire’ is a melodramatic and memorable duet with Martha Wainwright whose voice is country flecked and vibrato filled. With resounding strings adding to the song’s impact, Watson describes himself as “a man made out of holes.” Chairs fly, kids cry but by the whispered end, there is a determination that “I’m just trying to make it right.”
Acting as respite, ‘Gordon in the Willows’ is a gentle piano-led melody with Charlotte Cardin on lead vocals, its intensity creeps up on the listener. ‘Uh Oh’ ends with the French ballad, ‘Ca Va’, mimicking the album title in being two words of two letters ending in the same letter. Whilst basic school French lessons leave the desire to make the automated response, “Ca va bien, merci”, the coiled strings and piano suggest a huge degree of emotion.
An album with such a variety of vocalists and recorded in an array of locations (Montreal, LA, Paris, New Orleans, Mexico City) ought to struggle for unity yet its recording technique and a pitch-perfect sense of dynamic tension make ‘Uh Oh’ a consistently thrilling record. It does not rely on instantly memorable hooks but is primed with a multitude of stunning details that reveal themselves over continuous engagement. Multilingual, multi-instrumental and multi-talented, unquestionably one of the albums of 2025, the response to ‘Uh Oh’ has to be a resounding “oh yes.”
Patrick Watson: Uh Oh – Out 26 September 2025 (Secret City Records)
I was editor of the long-running fanzine, Plane Truth, and have subsequently written for a number of publications. While the zine was known for championing the most angular independent sounds, performing in recent years with a community samba percussion band helped to broaden my tastes so that in 2021 I am far more likely to be celebrating an eclectic mix of sounds and enthusing about Made Kuti, Anthony Joseph, Little Simz and the Soul Jazz Cuban compilations as well as Pom Poko and Richard Dawson.
