Nettwerk Records
2002
Cobblestone Runway
About This Album
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). Cobblestone Runway 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 Sexsmith'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, Ron Sexsmith has found a way to breathe a very human sense of emotional openness into his spare electronic backings ("Heart's Desire" even winds up with a bit of noisy but high-groove jamming), and Cobblestone Runway serves his songs as well as any album he's ever made.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10 and 11)

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