Ron Sexsmith

December 21 - 28, 1 9 9 5

***1/2 Ron Sexsmith

RON SEXSMITH

(Interscope)

Former Toronto bike messenger Ron Sexsmith scored a record deal after a single audition in the offices of Interscope Records, a label better known for acts like Snoop Doggy Dogg and Nine Inch Nails than for singers of nuanced pop. On Ron Sexsmith, producer Mitchell Froom preserves the intimacy of that office performance, using sparse instrumentation and putting Sexsmith's voice, a wonder of quiet power and offhand sensuality, front and center. It's a wise approach to these songs, which forsake irony for plainspoken lyrics and emotional sincerity.

There are a few upbeat moments, and one sultry soul number ("In Place of You"), but Sexsmith's stock-in-trade is the ballad -- he shines on languid gems like "Secret Heart," "Wastin' Time," and "Lebanon, Tennessee." Sexsmith cites fellow Canadian Leonard Cohen as an influence, and like Cohen (whose "Heart With No Companion" is covered here), some of his songs have a disquieting edge. "From a Few Streets Over," for example, vents a murderous impulse toward an ice-cream man.

-- Chris Erikson