Patrick Watson – “Love Songs For Robots” (video)

Adrien Begrand: I like the cutely choreographed video a lot more than the actual song. Watson has developed a terrible habit of creating indie pop that sounds lavishly arranged and produced, but so incredibly timid and spineless, devoid of any memorable hook whatsoever. Yodeling incomprehensibly will only get you so far. This is art pop snake oil. [3/10]

Paul Duffus: To all intents a ‘re-imagining’ of Radiohead at their most contemplative circa Hail to the Thief/In Rainbows, although “Love Songs for Robots” is a track which Radiohead would possibly have rejected for sounding too much like Radiohead. Then again, to say that this is overly derivative is perhaps a bit like complaining that the photocopy you just made is too much like the original. I mean, you wanted a photocopy, right? And it’s a good photocopy? So there you go, if you want something that sounds near exactly like music you probably already own, and if you’re into needless duplication and enjoy scoffing down warmed up regurgitations of nice things, then this is the track for you. If you don’t see the point in any of that, then type “BATTLES THE YABBA” into your search engine, and we’ll forget this whole sorry incident. [3/10]