Chris Watson - Secret Garden

Sometimes a song stops you in your tracks. Beholden to it’s beauty, it envelopes you for it’s entire run time before you awaken from your haze and sadly realise that you must return to the real world.

‘Secret Garden’ is one such track. Carrying the perfect summer vibe, the listener is gently brought into it’s orbit via the tweeting of birds before the luscious Parisian accordion kicks in. A sumptuous melody carries the listener through the verse and chorus then, just when you think you’ve got a handle on where Watson is taking you, a spiky, watertight guitar solo, seemingly lifted directly from the 1960s, takes the song somewhere else for a few glorious seconds before a final round wistful melancholia.

If I hadn’t been told this was a debut single, I’d never believe it. Polished and pure, it’s the essential soundtrack as we enter the last few weeks of summer.

Secret Garden is released digitally everywhere on Friday 6th August through Colorama Records, the brainchild of Andy Crofts (The Moons, Paul Weller).