REVIEW: Ron Sexsmith, Whereabouts (Interscope)
- Matthew Carlin
Just about every reference point with which to describe Ron Sexsmith's music comes from a time most whipper-snappers these days know nothing about. The golden age of the singer/songwriter - a fecund time for unshaven guys with long hair and acoustic guitars - started in the late-60s and all but disappeared a decade later. Sexsmith himself wistfully recounts his formative days in the early-90s playing Neil Young covers to unreceptive bar patrons in his native Canada. Now, after punk rock has been fully co-opted and indie rock has retreated into its collegiate cave, discerning music consumers are again buying well-crafted pop songs.
Lying somewhere between the grandiose musical extravaganzas of Rufus Wainwright and the straightforward strumming of Elliott Smith, Whereabouts boasts a full battalion of horns, strings and vintage keyboards, but never sounds cluttered. Although the instrumentation on Whereabouts is more involved than that of Sexsmith's last release, Other Songs, the production of the new tunes somehow seems a bit more focused. Yet the overall effect still feels loose and organic. Whereas the horns on "Clown in Broad Daylight" from Other Songs seem to jump out and announce their arrival, the abundant brass and reeds on the new platter tastefully slink their way in and out of arrangements, remaining supportive rather than overpowering.
On the soulful, organ-driven "Right About Now," Sexsmith starts with a laid back groove and slowly builds to a gentle string part that complements the final lines of the song quite nicely: "So my pen's writing this song,/but tonight the words are coming out wrong./I think I'll just let my heart speak./I sure could use your love/right about now./Oh, I need your love,/wish I could feel your love."
Thanks in large part to uber-producers Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake, Whereabouts is a rare gem of an album in which the actual sounds used match each song perfectly. Despite an impressive cast of musicians - which includes downtown New York jazzers like bassist Brad Jones, cellist Jane Scarpantoni, reed player Chris Speed and trumpeter Cuong Vu, among others - Sexsmith, Froom and Blake present a carefully orchestrated pop album that never lets any one player stand out above each song as a whole.
It's hard not to lapse into cliched critic jargon and use words like "tunesmith" and "craftsman" when describing Sexsmith's music. Which isn't a bad thing at all. And while the spin doctors at his label like to play up the fact that Elvis Costello is a fan of Sexsmith ("I've been playing it all year and could listen to it for another 20," said the bespectacled Brit of Sexsmith's first album, if you must know), what really matters here is the songs. Sexsmith offsets somber ditties like "Riverbed" and "In a Flash" with more upbeat tracks like the rocking "Beautiful View" and the Sgt. Peppers-style march of "One Grey Morning," the end result being a great album well worth many listens.
