There’s something deliciously simple about the way the eternally baby-faced Ron Sexsmith goes about his craft.
Over an almost 20-plus year career, the Canadian native has experimented with varied arrangements, from introspective ballads to grandiose pop, but the one thing Sexsmith has never strayed from is simple and elegant songwriting. Forever Endeavour, his 11th solo album, continues that trend.
The most immediate example of Sexsmith’s songwriting style on this record is ‘Snake Road’. It’s a spry little pop song featuring Sexsmith’s signature acoustic guitar backed by horns, bongos and piano. Impressively, these instrumental additions never seem to overshadow the charming vocals, the melody or the clever lyrical word play, “Go and blow your two cents/on a horn in a traffic jam”.
Much of the credit for re-refining this sound must surely go to producer Mitchell Froom, a knob-twiddler who has been around the block a time or two. Froom certainly adds some much needed oomph to Sexsmith’s typically sparse arrangements, but he does it in a way that never takes away from the songs themselves. The result are a collection of songs that could have been pulled from any number of classic American songwriting books, be they pop, folk or even musical theater.
‘Blind Eye’ begins with a gorgeous string arrangement before floating along into an almost Disney cartoon-ish ballad. It’s soft and delicate and makes fantastic use of Sexsmith’s vocal range, which can go from hushed murmur to stirring falsetto in the same track.
“An old dog who can’t be taught/lost in thought”, Sexsmith croons on one of the album’s highlights, the Patsy Cline-evoking ‘Lost in Thought’ . He’s showing us old tricks sure, but are they ever entertaining.
7.5/10
Reviewer: Nick Mackay