Patrick Watson – Noisy Sunday

Album:
Adventures in Your Own Backyard
Year :
2012
RIYL :
The Shins / Rufus Wainwright / Andrew Bird

“Tribes,” an episode of This American Life from March, 2013 features a segment on a rare neurological condition called autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR). The story centers on a young woman’s bewilderment over coming down with “a kind of pleasurable headache that…creep[s] down your spine” each time she would hear someone whisper.

For people with ASMR, according to those interviewed for the piece, the odd physical experience is often so pleasurable that it becomes something of a secret pursuit. The woman interviewed in “Tribes” goes on to describe her love of the slight clicking or smacking sound that someone who’s whispering often makes. You know—the sound created by some special combination of saliva and suction forming around your tongue when you whisper at your softest. The excitement felt by those with ASMR when listening to this sort of hushed dialog is so intense, in some cases, that entire video series on YouTube exist for the sole purpose of providing a platform for this weird noise.

“Noisy Sunday” by Patrick Watson could be the ASMR anthem. Fading in with a gentle whisper, Mr. Watson opens with exactly the sort of warm lip smacking that, apparently, those with ASMR seek out. From there, “Noisy Sunday” slowly builds to a beautiful and haunting orchestral sweep. Watson’s double-tracked vocals hit a chilling tone, evoking singing saws and howling wind in equal measure while the volume slowly and steady intensifies. Sonically, it’s a fantastic experience all its own.

Based on the interviews in “Tribes,” though, “Noisy Sunday” is also a fitting ASMR song on a thematic level. Watson sings,

It’s late in the night
It’s late in the night for a start
It’s quiet again
Too much for noise to go on to
Fill up the space
To fill up the rooms on Sunday afternoon
For your lovely ears
Waiting for something to break this calm
Send you my love in the sound

The idea of “sending love in the sound” is, in a literal sense, what’s happening in ASMR community (or so it seems to the outside observer). In a more general sense, Watson’s lyrics evoke, for me, the way music, or simply the human voice, can bridge physical distances or provide a refuge from the slings and arrows launched over the course of a lifetime.

As I woke this morning, regretfully, with a wicked hangover and miles away from the woman I love, I could think of no song that I wanted to hear more. I’m sending my love in the sound.



Buy This Song :

  • Buy Now on Amazon
(@YahSureMan) is the Founder of The Daily Soundtrack and Bark Attack Media. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Comments are closed.