Cobblestone Runway
The title of Ron Sexsmith's 2001 album,Blue Boy, well described a singer who's made a modest career playing pretty, moony tunes about love found and lost. But from the first notes of the sweet-swinging opener, "Former Glory," it's clear that on this follow-up, Sexsmith's forlorn folk-pop is in for a reinvention.Cobblestone Runwayadds synthesizers and danceable beats to his usual guitar and vocal melodies, and for the most part the new sounds enliven Sexsmith's songs without strangling them. The disc recallsBeth OrtonandJeb Loy Nichols, but not everything will sound alien to an established Sexsmith admirer: "The Less I Know" is a calm,Beatle-esque pop tune, and cuts like "Best Friends" and "God Loves Everyone" would fit on any of his previous discs. Inevitably there are a few missteps--among them the disco-fied "Dragonfly on Bay Street"--but overall Sexsmith's electro-folk experiment proves refreshingly successful.--Anders Smith Lindall