:: Track Listing

1. Hands Of Time
2. Snow Angel
3. All In Good Time
4. Never Give Up
5. I Think We`re Lost
6. Reason For Our Love
7. Cold Hearted Wind
8. Jazz At The Bookstore
9. Ship Of Fools
10. The Grim Trucker
11. Some Dusty Thinjgs
12. And Now The Day Is Done

:: Record Review

Ron Sexsmith

Time Being
(V2; 2006)

Rating: 84%
Combined Rating: N/A%


During the years in which I’ve become a fan, I’ve come across three types of Ron Sexsmith listeners. The first, like me, is the devoted listener who would happily throw a few punches in defense of the guy’s brilliance, knows the lyrics to every song and feels she has a special soul connection with the songwriter in question (not quite in the same way that my best friend at fourteen thought there was no way she wouldn’t wind up married to Eddie Vedder, but we’re talking deep soul connection all the same.) The second, the mildly engaged listener, thinks Sexsmith’s written a few great songs but doesn’t really feel invested in his music beyond those couple of minutes. The third, the indifferent listener, doesn’t feel it at all, and can be heard branding Sexsmith “boring” or “too melancholy.” This review is for all of the above types, and also the not-yet-exposed-listener. Here’s hoping you’ll give him another shot, or give yourself a pat on the back for having such impeccable taste in singer-songwriters.

Time Being is Sexsmith’s tenth album. After working with different producers over the last six years -- Steve Earle on Blue Boy, Martin Terefe on Cobblestone Runway and Retriever -- Sexsmith’s reunited with Mitchell Froom. Froom produced Sexsmith’s first three albums and it’s evident once again on Time Being that the two of them make a good team. Apart from a few missteps -- the flashy, minor guitar riff on “I Think We’re Lost” and the lethargic, bass-heavy opening to “Jazz at the Bookstore” -- everything production-wise on Time Being is in its right place. Sexsmith’s got a knack for melody, and Froom’s got a knack for bringing it out.

Likely because of this reunion with Froom, reviewers have remarked that Time Being is reminiscent of Sexsmith’s self-titled debut. To my ear, though, in terms of mood and theme, it’s set decidedly ten years apart, the lyrics turned more inward and Sexsmith’s vocal delivery sharpened. Time Being, an album thematically concerned with the passage of time, opens appropriately with “Hands of Time” a melodic, mandolin-driven existentialist plea. Desperate to come to terms with relentless time, Sexsmith is at once defiant about the prospect of doing so: “If all we have is here and now/ Honey, I won’t change a thing/ If all I know is how I feel/ When you move your snow white hand in mine/ I’ll never hold the hands of time.” “Snow Angel” is a tender reflection on a failed love, and seems to be the darker half to Retreiver’s “Dandelion Wine,” a song that looks into the past but finds a happy ending.

Many tracks on Time Being sound influenced by The Beatles, from the playful, hook-laden “Ship of Fools” to the White-album-esque chorus on “The Grim Trucker,” the most experimental track on the album. “Some Dusty Things” is an upbeat tribute to a lost friend and is the most definitively Sexsmith track on the album (what does that mean exactly? It’s a beautiful, melodic pop song with some lyrical edge.) “Jazz at the Bookstore” is a reflection, at once humorous and biting, on today’s “coffee culture” that allows Leadbelly to be “drowned out by the grind” of the latte-spewing machines we worship. It’s also, perhaps, the best song on the album, showing that Sexsmith can deliver on bluesy and soulful, as well. “Never Give Up” is an immaculately produced gem, as simple and gorgeous as love songs come.

Asked in a recent interview what sets his music apart, Sexsmith dodged the question by saying “There’s a tradition of melodic songwriting that I’m trying to uphold. If people are looking for something real…” Everyone has a different definition of real, but for me, on Time Being, that’s exactly what Sexsmith provides.

Kate Steele :: 15 June 2006 |