Ron Sexsmith is one of those artists that get taken for granted easily. His work is so consistently pleasing, so aesthetically distinctive, that it can be mistaken for being predictable. So we might skip a couple of his records, then maybe a few more, and the next thing you know it’s been a decade or so. But then we come across a new album, and suddenly we remember what made him great in the first place, and how much we love what he does, and feel a double rush of bliss and regret.
Hangover Terrace, the Canadian songsmith’s latest LP, is the right kind of record to make us both giddy and guilty. Sexsmith’s craft has always celebrated a shimmering midpoint between folky singer/songwriter introspection and bright pop effervescence, and this album is no different. Indeed, if anything he hits a new peak here. The luscious “It’s Been a While,” rocking “Burgoyne Woods,” and glowing “Don’t Lose Sight” stand comfortably alongside the snarky “Easy For You to Say,” psych-tinged “Outside Looking In,” and warm “Angel On Your Shoulder” – arms around each other’s waists despite any tweaks in style. It helps, of course, that Sexsmith’s steady acoustic guitar picking and mellifluous voice remain dependable throughout, sounding as sparkling as they did in 1994 when his first album came out.
Writing songs as winning and melodic as his best, and sounding as if no time has passed since he first began making records, Sexsmith comes up with an album as strong as anything he’s done. But then, we say that every time we hear a Sexsmith record we’ve not heard before, don’t we?
