Details
Track Listing
1. Still Time
2. Right About Now
3. Must Have Heard It Wrong
4. Riverbed
5. Feel For You
6. In a Flash
7. Idiot Boy, The
8. Beautiful View
9. One Grey Morning
10. Doomed
11. Every Passing Day
12. Seem to Recall
Album Notes
Personnel: Ron Sexsmith (vocals, guitar, mandolin); "Nashville" Brad Jones (slide guitar, bass); Don Kerr (ukulele banjo, background vocals); Dan Zanes (banjo); Tracy Bonham, Lorenza Ponce, Laura Seaton-Finn (violin); Matthew Pierce (viola); Jane Scarpantoni (cello); Aaron Heick (piccolo, English horn, clarinet); Chris Speed (tenor saxophone); Cuong Vu (trumpet); Curtis Hasselbring (trombone); Mitchell Froom (keyboards, bells); Pete Thomas (drums, percussion).
Recorded at The Magic Shop, New York, New York.
Canadian singer-songwriter Sexsmith is a man out of time. The last thing anyone was looking for in the late-'90s was a sensitive singer-songwriter (Jewel doesn't count), much less one possessed of a grace uncommon enough to lay waste the liabilities so prevalent in the genre. Sexsmith's style harkens back to the fragile folk-rock of Tim Hardin (especially vocally) and the artful pop constructions of Brian Wilson.
Unlike his first album, there's no attempt to modernize Sexsmith's sound with hip studio gimmickry. Instead producer Mitchell Froom takes an uncharacteristically straightforward approach to the sound of WHEREABOUTS. The gently intertwining guitars and keyboards could have come off a mid-period Kinks album. Thanks to Sexsmith's wide-eyed innocence and lack of apparent irony, what might sound precious or cloying in less sincere hands comes off as both artful and heartfelt.
Industry Reviews
4 stars (out of 5) - ...Sexsmith has always used an autumnal palatte, here the golden leaves are piled neck-high...
Q (07/01/1999)
...compact, tuneful melodies play out long enough for you to remember them fondly....a strong effort...that makes you want to get to know this Sexsmith character a little better.
New Music Monthly (07/01/1999)
...Sexsmith's writing speaks as much about the more upbeat feelings of hope and empathy as they do the bleakest ones of sorrow and isolation....His delivery is casual and his points are finely drawn, but his way with words makes the mundane seem achingly poignant.
CMJ (05/24/1999)
...Producers Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake do a wonderfully understated job of colorizing Sexsmith's sad-kid melodies and voice....Call it buoyant sorrow. - Rating: A
Entertainment Weekly (05/28/1999)
4 stars out of 5 - ...[WHEREABOUTS] is wry, reflective and elegant....Seek Sexsmith out...
Melody Maker (06/19/1999)
8 out of 10 - ...[Sexsmith] tackles...enigmas in guileful songs that [Langston Hughes] might have admired. The singer's well-ordered melodies flesh out phrases that would hit like cliches from a less gifted artist....WHEREABOUTS offers many morsels of epiphany...
Spin (08/01/1999)
3 1/2 out of 5 - ...Ron writes and sings sweetly droopy songs that melt the heart and assuage the soul. Sexsmith brings an expanded palette to WHEREABOUTS: banjos and clarinets, piccolos and English horns, all enriching his deceptively direct...songs
Rolling Stone (06/10/1999)
...Producers Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake do a wonderfully understated job of colorizing Sexsmith's sad-kid melodies and voice....Call it buoyant sorrow. - Rating: A
Entertainment Weekly (05/28/1999)
8 out of 10 - ...[Sexsmith] tackles...enigmas in guileful songs that [Langston Hughes] might have admired. The singer's well-ordered melodies flesh out phrases that would hit like cliches from a less gifted artist....WHEREABOUTS offers many morsels of epiphany...
Spin (08/01/1999)
3 1/2 out of 5 - ...Ron writes and sings sweetly droopy songs that melt the heart and assuage the soul. Sexsmith brings an expanded palette to WHEREABOUTS: banjos and clarinets, piccolos and English horns, all enriching his deceptively direct...songs
Rolling Stone (06/10/1999)
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