Continuing my look at 2004, first by counting down my own top ten albums of that year.
#8 – Ron Sexsmith – Retriever
I’ve given Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith a bit of a hard time over his consistency and productivity.
He’s been putting out a solid album every year or two for 30 years, an enviable track record for any artist. But there’s a sameness to his style that makes all of those albums run together after awhile.
The internet is funny.
On the YouTube clip of today’s Random Weekend SOTD, posted by some kind soul in September of 2009, a flame war broke out between somebody comparing Ron Sexsmith to Paul McCartney and a McCartney detractor.
It was a short battle, only a few posts long though it spanned a month. The Sexsmith fan accused his opponent of lacking “couth,” a nice touch.
The nice thing about theme weekends is that it gives me a chance to revisit the albums of a favorite artist in chronological order, enjoying the evolution. Often an album I’d kind of lost track of over time will reemerge as a favorite.
That has been the case with Retriever, an understated Ron Sexsmith album that followed the more showy Blue Boy and Cobblestone Runway.
I lose this album in a blur of the other material Sexsmith released in later years because it doesn’t have as overt an identity as its predecessors.
2004 saw the release of Ron Sexsmith’s seventh studio album, Retriever. This record wasn’t as showily produced as its predecessor, but did maintain the overall polish. Sexsmith was now consistently putting out albums that not only contained great songs but sounded great as well.
I realize that Ron Sexsmith Weekends aren’t exactly setting the world on fire. My meager audience would probably prefer any number of things to these posts. But I have to say, revisiting each of Sexsmith’s albums as I prepare my blog entries, he has grown even more in my estimation.
Meet Me In Montauk 