Album Details

• Artist: Ron Sexsmith
• Album: Long Player Late Bloomer
• Label: Thirty Tigers
• Year of Release: 2011
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: MusicCritic on 2011-03-03

Long Player Late Bloomer is easy listening. Don’t worry – it’s not “easy listening.” It’s just easy to listen to. It’s like a bowl of ice cream without any of the guilt.

Ron Sexsmith has created 13 utterly and completely lovely little ditties about broken hearts, true love, deep regret, and life long passion. Sexsmith is a compositional master and there is little that is erroneous or unnecessary on this record. Each note feels placed with precision and care and unlikely producer Bob Rock (of Metallica fame) laces a clean sound through the entire record.

But Sexsmith continues to play it safe and Long Player Late Bloomer lacks any sort of surprise. Sexsmith has once again made an album full of lovely songs about lovely things but seems to be afraid to delve into the darker, dirty elements of his genre. Folk music can be gritty and should be from time to time. Maybe Ron Sexsmith won’t ever jump into the deep end but that’s ok, he’s still solid and interesting, even in the shallow end.

Michelle Kennedy

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