A
singer/songwriter
whose strong suit is his warmth and humanity wouldn't seem like a likely prospect to be teamed up with a bunch of
electronic
keyboards, drum machines, and other bits of hi-tech hardware, but after leaving behind
Mitchell Froom
's tape-loop fantasias for
Steve Earle
's rootsy and straightforward production on
Blue Boy
,
Ron Sexsmith
takes another sonic left-turn on his fifth album,
Cobblestone Runway
(his sixth if you include his first self-released cassette,
Grand Opera Lane
).
finds
Sexsmith
embracing electronics with surprising enthusiasm, but he has the good sense not to drown himself in them; while
"These Days"
features a prominent drum loop and echoey white-noise keyboard patches, the chilly undertow is offset by some soulful backing vocals and the (slightly) rumpled sincerity of
's voice and acoustic guitar, and the spacey synth lines on
"Disappearing Act"
find their complement in a gloriously low-tech electric guitar. Much like
Mark Eitzel
on
The Invisible Man
has found a way to breathe a very human sense of emotional openness into his spare
backings (
"Heart's Desire"
even winds up with a bit of noisy but high-groove jamming), and
serves his songs as well as any album he's ever made. Of course, it helps that (as usual)
has written a dozen winners here, from the lament for the sad state of love on
to the realist's bid for optimism on
"Gold In Them Hills,"
and the purposefully childlike
"God Loves Everyone"
is one of the truly effective musical pleas for human tolerance to emerge post-September 11. On his last few releases,
'the recording artist' appears to be finally catching up with
'the gifted songwriter,' and if
's surfaces may initially puzzle a few fans, the heart, soul, and hard-won wisdom of these performances confirm that he's finally mastered the recording studio, and it ranks with his best-realized work to date. (The disc also features a second version of
"Gold In Them Hills"
as a bonus, featuring a duet vocal with
Chris Martin
of
Coldplay
.) ~ Mark Deming