Patio Lanterns
"Patio Lanterns" is a song by Canadian rock musician Kim Mitchell that was first released as a single in June 1986 and later appeared in the 1986 album Shakin' Like a Human Being. An acoustic recording of the song was released as a single in 1995 and also included in the album Greatest Hits released the same year. By 1996, the song had been broadcast on Canadian radio stations more than 100,000 times. The song was described by the CBC as "quintessentially Canadian".
Background
Partially written by Mitchell while driving around Toronto in his van, it almost was left off the album.Critical reception
The song was reviewed by Billboard in the 21 June 1986 issue, and was described as "contorted imagery presented in a Jackson Browne soundalike manner". In 2008, Lynn Peppas of the Welland Tribune stated that "Patio Lanterns" and other Mitchell songs are "timeless summer rock anthems".In the article Across the Great Divide, author Barry Grant states that Canadian rock and roll differentiates itself from American rock and roll by its use of ironic subversiveness applied to the pop culture American genre. Jeannette Sloniowski and Joan Nicks state that "Patio Lanterns" fit that model, one of the few songs by popular Canadian rock musicians to do so.