Cobblestone Runway - Ron Sexsmith

Track List:

1. Former Glory
2. These Days
3. Least That I Can Do
4. God Loves Everyone
5. Disappearing Act
6. For a Moment
7. Gold in Them Hills
8. Heart's Desire
9. Dragonfly on Bay Street
10. The Less I Know
11. Up the Road
12. Best Friends
13. Gold in Them Hills (remix)

Running time: 44 minutes
Released: 2002

If nothing else, Ron Sexsmith conjured an evocative title for this record. Picked up after I got into Sexsmith through Blue Boy, I think there are some gems to be uncovered here despite my moving away from his music in the years since.

Former Glory is a gentle start, rough voice over a simple melody, themed of hope despite some challenges, nostalgia winning out and being a good thing. Bright and breezy in length as well as sound it is a smart little opening. I am sat here tired as a dog, all night indigestion meaning no sleep, so the gentle opener is a welcome thing.

These Days has a bit of strut to the rhythm, but I find I cannot but think of the Danny and the Champions of the World song of the same name instead. This tune is somewhat dull in comparison, but again rather gently so. The snap in the drums is nice, and the tune just about sustains itself as the song meanders on its lazy way. Ron Sexsmith is an odd duck - a prolific songwriter whose tunes have been sung by much bigger names to greater acclaim. A soft soul with a clear talent but not always with the performing chops to pull things off. For me, now, his songs here fall into the "nice" category - they're pleasant enough, but not excitingly so. Not offering anything much to get my teeth into, not offering any standout moments, structures or lines that grab attention.

His voice is not the most accomplished. Whilst I have a lot of time for unconventional voices, Sexsmith's voice on God Loves Everyone is more a question of a conventional voice that can't quite pull off what he is trying to do. It cracks a little, where a purer voice would carry the tune through. It is a shame because without those small cracks around the edges there might actually be that x-factor to some of these songs. That said, there are times when that slight broken edge actually makes his tunes. More on that later.

He returns to a more low-fi sound and twangy guitar for Disappearing Act - a more grubby sort of tune, and this suits him a bit better in my book. This tune is catchy, guitars, background keys and a rough vocal that suits the imperfect sound of the song as a whole. I rather like this one, it has a rawness to it that lends it authenticity, and connectivity. After a rather forgettable filler we hit the high point of the album - at least from memory - and this is one of those moments where the cracks in Sexsmith's voice lend gravitas to his work.

Gold in Them Hills is a wonderful, wonderful tune. Simple piano melody and his soft, stretching voice conveying a real sense of sorrowful hope - the message that, yes, things are bad now, but they'll get better. It is a really accomplished number, strings coming in to add weight to the tone, voice straining on the higher notes - conveying the importance of the message, the personal nature of it. I heard this song first in times that were less good, mental well-being wise, and I found strength in it them. Now I just find it a lovely little number.

Whilst trying to avoid a track-by-track I find myself reading a couple of other websites and getting annoyed with the way so many people on the net seem to write one-sentence paragraphs. It looks lazy and child-like to me. The odd short para to visually break up a wall of text is a good thing but every sentence being its own thing looks tacky (take note BBC online - a chief offender here). Of course, I look back up the page here and see a set of very similar length blocks and I don't think that works any better; what is that saying about stones and glasshouses?  On the Record, a perfectly OK song has changed character with a long guitar-led outro, then given way to the disco-styled Dragonfly on Bay Street. This has a difference to it that makes it quite refreshing. It's not really a disco tune, but the rhythm and bass have an electronic fuzz to them that put this musically outside the general pattern of the album. I find myself rather liking it - it's massively watered down as compared to actual practitioners of these types of tunes but that helps make it his, y'know? That, and when it ends we are immediately back into soft ballad and acoustic guitar territory.

This listen feels like it has gone on forever, but this is really quite a short album. Normally that would signify not enjoying it, but... I am?

Putting a short line in there feels rather artificial given the previous stanza but that thought was a genuine one that hit me and I felt needed to be communicated as it is very much in the spirit of this project. Just two short numbers to go, then a remix of Gold in Them Hills to finish. The first of that trio of tunes is pitched lower and fits his voice rather well as a result, but when the vocal disappears what is left is pretty forgettable - a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde number then. This is followed by a sub 2-minute ramble with nothing much worth mentioning. The closing remix adds a tinny quality and unneeded electronic beats to a tune that was pretty much perfect as it was. There is, perhaps, also a nice tonal effect added to some of the keyboard notes, but the cost of adding this nice touch is too high.

The album goes out with a bit of a whimper really. I should perhaps cut a number of the weaker tracks here, but for some un-communicable reason I don't really feel like doing so.

The Charm And The Strange - Simon Wilcox

Track list:

1. Les Yeux Sur Toi

Running time: 3 minutes
Released: 2007

Odd singleton here. No clue where it came from - or whether this should, in fact, use the English version of the title, Eyes On You, which is also a song on this album according to my search results. This Simon is female - maybe that isn't uncommon in non-anglophone locations.

It is a Wedding Present-esque riff that opens us up. The singing is definitely in French (well, Quebecois I guess) so that settles the version question.

It has a very 2000s indie vibe to it over the pretty stark guitar base. The higher piercing notes that ring out behind the vocal are reminiscent of a whole string of tunes whose names escape me in the moment, lending the track a familiarity despite my long-latent French (I have a reasonable A level from almost 2 decades ago) not being up to the task of following the lyrics.

The song is alright, I guess. That familiarity perhaps offering it more appeal than it merits in and of itself. I see no compelling reason to keep it around though.

Blue - Joni Mitchell

Track list:

1. All I Want
2. My Old Man
3. Little Green
4. Carey
5. Blue
6. California
7. This Flight Tonight
8. River
9. A Case of You
10. The Last Time I Saw Richard

Running time: 36 minutes
Released: 1971

So I move from one classic to another; different genre, but same level of distance between me and the disc. However Windows Media Player must be the only entity in the world that would think that "Blue" should be listed after "Blue [X]" when sorting alphabetically. At least, I hope so because man, that makes no sense to me.

This album is a classic example of something I own because I thought I should own it, though that said it is not the only Mitchell album I have so I guess I thought something of it... time to find out whether I still do or not.

The jangling nature of the tightly stretched guitar on All I Want is a bit too bright for my morning mood, and Mitchell's wandering voice has a bit of a sharp edge to it when it goes into the higher registers, but despite these little grievances there is something essential about the way they combine. The minimalist approach can fall down pretty easily but here it seems to add gravity and weight to what is a somewhat flighty tune. I don't know whether this is confirmation bias or something else, but it seems to share that virtue of accessibility with Blue Train. Folk - especially 70s folk - had a bit of a retrospective reputation for disappearing from relevance, though I guess being '71 this probably predates that slide from the public consciousness.

I doubt that we will see much like this again somehow - the high floaty voice and a simple piano melody on My Old Man sounds like the sort of thing that would be rejected out of hand by modern music for being uncomplicated. Perhaps the stripped down sound will come back round - people do still try it and largely fail, after all - but here it seems to be nailed on. This doesn't disappear or shrink in the way I often find such noodly little numbers doing. The strong timbre to the guitar helps - it's not soft and receding and sucking the vocal down the black hole of anti-sound. The edge to her voice, similarly, guards against the shrinking violet syndrome. The sense is of a woman standing proudly in the spotlight, rather than a performer lurking in the half-light on the edge of the beam, which is how I see a lot of similar attempts. There is a natural confidence that comes through.

Switching tack a second, I am surprised given the title and indeed the rather morose-looking Joni in the cover image, that the first four tracks here are all relatively bright and joyful. I came into this expecting a sombre affair and I don't find myself mired in despair at all. The title track has a mournful air to it, but even then the piano melody and the style of the vocal delivery work to ameliorate the sadness some. There is real warmth in those keys even as the melody they create is tinged with regret, and with the exception of the highest, most warbly notes, the same could be said for Mitchell's voice. I find her singing hard to love. Those strayings into the upper limits of her range have the effect of nails down a chalk board in the middle of a fascinating lesson - little moments of excruciating discomfort peppered through songs and tunes that otherwise I really enjoy and engage with. I can completely see why this is a classic, even as I cringe from the slide effects on California - too many bad associations with 80s movies.

The higher pace and lower rumble of This Flight Tonight is a welcome change-up. I am reminded of some John Darnielle-penned numbers. I really didn't expect to connect Mitchell to The Mountain Goats here, but the aesthetic, including the tinny edge to some of the recorded elements is really a very good fit, even if the vocal approaches are chalk and cheese. Huh, two mentions of chalk in the same post. It being December, the similarities between River and Jingle Bells in the opening bars of piano are obvious for the first time, and with the month referenced in the lyric it is clearly a deliberate choice that somehow works. As an aside I bloody hate Christmas music - anything I can do to avoid it, I will. Beyond that I find this to be the least interesting of the songs I have heard this morning. Whilst the piano melody is nice, the song itself is dull and does not seem to come with the same sense of self-assurance that I would use to characterise the prior performances. In other words it trips around the edge of the pit of disappearance.

That makes no sense outside the context of this post, and even within it's a stretch. Ah well. Case of You is a very recognisable chorus, but the verses always seem to fade from my memory. The song is slower than I would have thought just from the recalled chorus, and a little plodding if I am honest. The same tune, the same words, with a little more pace. I suspect that might break it, actually, but it feels like something is missing and my first instinct is that it is an urgency that a higher tempo might address. What do I Snow.

As the last tune picks up, I find myself having reconnected with this. Whilst I may have bought it because I felt I should have (or at least hear) it, it now stays because it is every bit the masterful work that it was talked up as. I can certainly see why I went on to buy more Joni Mitchell records, despite her work all predating my life. I would never put this up as a favourite, or something that I am likely to listen to often. Alas, the modern mode of musical consumption probably renders most of these tunes pretty inaccessible. Something like Blue works far better in its original form - appreciated in flow and as a whole. That alone means it will probably quickly return to "forgotten" status, but does not provide a driver to exclude it from my collection. If anything, this instead suggests to me that the way we (or at least I) tend to consume music today is detrimental to our appreciation of some forms. I suspect I am far from alone in having most things be a shuffle of some kind now, and albums like this make me wonder what I may be missing as a result.

Blue Boy - Ron Sexsmith

Track list:

1. This Song
2. Cheap Hotel
3. Don't Ask Why
4. Foolproof
5. Tell Me Again
6. Just My Heart Talkin'
7. Not Too Big
8. Miracle in Itself
9. Thirsty Love
10. Never Been Done
11. Thumbelina Farewell
12. Parable
13. Keep It in Mind
14. Fallen

Running time: 41 minutes
Released: 2001

I wish I could recall what got me to pick up this album. It was my entry into the works of Ron Sexsmith, and was a real favourite for a while. I have drifted away from his music of late, stopped buying new releases (I don't have his latest couple of albums) and not really listened to any that I have for quite some time. This is a welcome excuse to retread old ground and see if I can reconnect.

We start with a pleasing meta-song, its incredibly easy listening. Simple structure, nice little roll and Sexsmith's slightly off-kilter voice. I seem to have a bit of a penchant for singers where things are almost as broken as they are pristine. Meanwhile the song swells, horns adding it a depth and a volume to keep it ticking. I can see why Ron Sexsmith ended up being a prolific songwriter for other people without ever making it big himself.

I just love the timbre of the guitar lead on Cheap Hotel, whilst the sadness of the song is palpable. Just as I remember, the start of this album is pretty strongly up my street, and after a breeze through low rent accomodation Don't Ask Why adds an injection of life. Here a catchy tune and a nice full sound picks us up. The change up for the chorus is really effective at shifting the mood and creating themes in the music. I hadn't realised the ooohs and aaahs that form the backing when we hit the second chorus before - and I suspect I may have missed them in the first instance this time. This is a pretty bright little pop song really. My memory is that the album doesn't keep up this hit rate all the way through though, and Foolproof's stripped back, slow dance number fails to charm me. Its the sort of tune that makes me feel it could have been a massive hit 5 decades earlier and sung by a crooner of the era, and could probably be a major crowd-pleaser for modern knock-offs too. Ronald Eldon Sexsmith may have penned it but somehow the overriding impression is that his voice lacks the cachet to carry it off.

And yet. It is that same lack of security, a slight wobble, a rough edge in his voice that attracts me to his music. That and a knack for finding little melodies that are far more engaging and enjoyable than one might expect them to be. There's nothing epic, grand or posturing about his tunes, they're just tight and interesting enough to do their job and catchy enough to get you nodding along or tapping a foot or something. In a similar vein, the songs aren't singalong at full volume, or even mouth the words in appreciation, candidates but neither are they vapid little love songs.

I've hit half way already - these songs are short, radio friendly and all that. Not Too Big is a different feel again, snappy percussion, talking about loneliness in crowds. It has a downbeat kind of kick, bass-heavy, not much melody. It's damn catchy - the snap to the snare, the handclaps, the bass riff - somehow all speak to inactivity whilst maintaining a groove. It's a lovely piece of composition. Just to show range, the next track is a piano melody that I could listen to over and over - though I think the strings on Miracle in Itself aren't great in places and that the tune as a whole could do with a greater depth of sound. There is a tumbledown, accidental air to it.

I think I once saw a documentary following Sexsmith through the process of recording and releasing an album where his comparative success as a writer (with fellow Canucks Feist and Michael Bublé - the only time that tag will get used! - among those to have covered him) and the niche reach of his own releases came up. A quick Google turns up Love Shines, which suggests I wasn't going mad.  This one album showcases a range of songs that makes it hard to see why concerted attempts to grow his own audience failed. With a bit more backing, a bit more production on the tracks, some of them could be huge. And yet (again). To do so would probably rob them of a charm, an understatement that is a key component of his songwriting.

Blue Boy starts strong, but I think it is fair to say the second half of the record does not quite live up to that promise. Though as I try to think why I feel that is fair, every criticism I was going to turn out gets disproved by the next track to start. I'd forgotten the pleasantness of the melody in Parable for example. I think this track has problems - the percussion is too loud relative to everything else, and there isn't really enough to set off the light touch of the guitar, and Sexsmith's voice is perhaps as not quite there as it gets on this disc given the style of delivery too. That said, the strength of that core line and the general ambiance of the tune are so... nice.

Keep It In Mind is the proof that my theory of the second half being poor is garbage. This tune has a fantastic cadence change between verse and chorus based on the change of rhythm. The guitar work is tinny in a studied way, minimalist and very effective. It's foot-tappingly great for the first 2 minutes before making a poor decision not to close out and carries on with improvised vocal, weakening what went before. Fallen is another ballad, noodled guitar and brushed drums create a soft and sweet melody but there is a sadness in Sexsmith's voice that is hard to escape - I think it is a natural artefact of the slightly flattened way he seems to reach the notes because it's not really a sad song. It is the final song on the disc, though. In summary? I still really like this album, but I can see very clearly why I stopped listening to it as much and, if I am honest, why I felt I didn't need to continue buying Sexsmith's records: I don't think the others match up that well to this. I do have a fair few more to listen to though, so maybe I'll prove myself wrong again!

'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! - Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Track List:

1. Mladic
2. Their Helicopters’ Sing
3. We Drift Like Worried Fire
4. Strung Like Lights at Thee Printemps Erable

Running Time: 53 minutes
Released: 2012

OK so apparently apostrophes count as "other" but not enough for this album to have been listed with the punctuation and numbers in WMP. Instead there is an insert in the middle of A just for this album. Computers, eh? Got to love them.

I had been aware of GY!BE (and the correct punctuation in their name) for a long time without ever buying anything. Hearing stuff friends played was the extent of it until something prompted me to buy this 2012 release. I think I regretted it immediately and LastFM suggests I have not managed to listen to the whole thing in the 2 years I have had it (3 scrobbles before this listen). I will admit I am not looking forward to this one, and expect it to be disappearing from my library once it is complete. "Its only 4 tracks, how bad can it be?" - after one 15 minute 4-tracker comes one almost making the hour. Well, no time like the present...

The 4 tracks break down as 2 super-tracks of ~20 minutes each, and 2 tracks that are in the ballpark of the regular song (albeit the longer end of that scale) at 6 1/2 minutes. Mladic, presumably named for this dirtbag, is of the former. It opens with a long sequence with an insistent guitar riff repeating whilst all kinds of layers form, play out and dissipate over the top of it. Actually this is pretty darn good. The relative volumes are right, so that repetition is very audible but at the same time it plays second fiddle to what else is going on. Rather than becoming a drone to get bored of, it becomes a touchstone of familiarity whilst the sound around it shrieks, wails, thumps and breaks into your skull with its insistence. The impressive part is the sustained intensity of the piece. The soundscape takes on elements from eastern musical traditions as the tune progresses and I find these just that little bit harsher. They are sharper edged sounds and tones which does not sit so well. I am about half way through the song's length when I realise that constant guitar repeat has gone. I wonder when it disappeared. It is no coincidence that this realisation accompanies a lightening of the load - an expansion of the sound into airier space, less constrained, more open, and slowed... to the point of almost petering out at one stage. The lull is not appreciated here other than for drawing closed those eastern twangs and heralding a return to more rounded sounds that, whilst still noisy, cut less of a hole in my eardrums. The last third of this piece has been rather dull in comparison with what came before. It keeps threatening to build to something again, but then chickens out and maintains a status quo which just fails to excite, before finally kicking any interest out the door with improvised percussion left alone to finish up. I found the first half pretty great, the third quarter alright and the last simply forgettable. Not sure what that leaves me wanting to do with the track really...

Their Helicopters' Sing takes over and is just flat for the first 2 1/2 minutes. A simple drone. I keep waiting for something to kick in, and whilst there is a gradual build in volume and assorted other sounds being layered on top of the drone it singularly fails to engage with me, the drone getting on my nerves and a few of the layered sounds being like nails down a chalkboard in terms of the response they generate. The whole 6 1/2 minutes are like this, alas, and as good an indication as any as to why I did not get into GY!BE earlier.

The opening to We Drift Like Worried Fire, the second mega-track, is interesting. A plucked string hook, and crafted sounds around that produce an eerie tone. This takes up the first three minutes, before a guitar comes in to pick up the hook and it promises for a growth in the sound, something that is sorely needed by this point. Alas it is some time coming - another minute before anything further is built on. The base remains pleasant enough, but the song is flattering to deceive a little until the stings return as a melody. There is then some progression, construction, and embellishment. The problem I find myself with is that I have just got bored in the meantime and the new, richer sound is nice, but is it nice enough to excuse the overlong build up? On balance, probably, just. Of course as I say that there are still 12 minutes to go!

The clocks went back last night. It is now 17.30 and pitch dark outside, which does nothing for my mood. The next 4 months are bleak, black and devoid of fun as I rise in the dark, leave for work in the dark, and come home again in the dark. Bleh.

I was going to compare that to what was happening in the tune around the 10 minute mark but then it got interesting on me again. This piece is really frustrating with its ups and downs. One of the problems is that the interesting bits are either too short or last long enough to become uninteresting by virtue of repetition. Unlike Mladic, it appears that the last third of this tune will be the most energetic, highest tempo, and more impressive section. I suspect there may yet be a bait-and-switch ending, but the build feels like we could be in for a crescendo and that is a positive development. Definitely an interesting end, and overall it leaves me with a positive impression on the song despite moments of disengagement or frustration with earlier sections.

The fourth and final track is another drone-based piece and I have to say I am immediately turned off by this approach. There is nothing here for me to latch on to, nothing to enjoy, just a wall of sameness pushing at my eardrums and making me want the listen to end. Even when that wall breaks there is no element introduced to liven it up, just another different drone taking over. I will be keeping 50% of this album and to my surprise it is the longer pieces that make the cut. They both have their moments of frustration or disinterest but they also have some astounding sections that really gripped my ears. As the album closes, I am left with a physical sensation of the sound having been removed. This speaks to the effect of the drones - powerful in terms of generating a response, but not necessarily a favourable one.