After touring 2006's Close to Paradise and then 2009's Wooden Arms for five gruelling years, (the band) Patrick Watson opted to record the follow-up in (their singer) Patrick Watson's apartment. Those shared names must cause much confusion on the road, not to mention the fact that they sound a lot like Antony & the Johnsons and a bit less like fellow Montrealers Arcade Fire. There's a shattered feel to many of the songs here: world-weary words delivered with hazy ennui. With Watson's musings wrapped up in waterfalling pianos, violins, kettle drums or flugel horns, it's pretty stuff, with breathtaking production which doesn't quite conceal a shortage of strong songs. The spine-tingling anthem Quiet Crowd is the exception, Watson's butterfly vocal darting around lines about "lovers and liars" and wrongs in dangerous places. Mortality features heavily, and the choir-stroked Words in the Fire is darkly lovely, but the album doesn't land enough killer blows.