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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Solo debut at last . (revised & corrected), 1 Mar 2005
The release of this the first album by Ron Sexsmith was a long journey that had started in December 1987 when Ron had not long moved to Toronto he went to see a producer called Bob Wiseman, he liked Ron's songs and agreed to help him record a Demo tape, the producer just had a tiny basement studio this is where the demo was to be recorded, a 4 track demo tape was planned.In the process of recording the demo the 4 tracks turned onto 11 tracks, however Bob Wiseman played for a well-known Canadian band called "Blue Rodeo" and with their busy touring schedule and Bob's other work commitments the recording of the 11 tracks was stretched over a 3-year period, finally the 11 songs were released as a independent cassette called "Grand Opera Lane" this was early 1991. As if by magic a copy of the tape found it's way down to a bigwig in Los Angeles this lead to a publishing deal, which in turn lead to a recording contract with the label "Interscope". If you want to get hold of this tape forget it, (long time sold out) but now from Ron's own website the tape has been re-issued as a C.D. Out of the 11 songs that appeared on the tape only 1 track made it to the major label debut, the track in question is called "Speaking with the Angel" which is a lot rockier in nature than the version you will hear on this album. For the release of Ron's eponymous album, one of my favourite producers was brought in (this is how I personally discovered Ron) Mitchell Froom along with his long time partner Tchad Blake, who was employed to record and mix the recordings. The another attraction for me was some of the musicians that appear on this album firstly one of my favourite drummers, Jerry Marotta, who for this collection of songs under plays so as not to overwhelm the delicate songs that Ron has written, and of course the superb keyboard skills of Mitchell Froom who also under plays. Another appealing element for me was the overall sound of the album; this was achieved by the skills of Bob Ludwig at "Gateway Mastering" the master of sound in my opinion. Ron Sexsmith has very angelic face and has a voice to match; in one minute you feel like the man is going to break into tears and in the next moment he has you the listener feeling like you will break down with him. As he sings the opening lines of the first track "Secret Heart" the feeling of his despair comes washing over you, this is an album of love lost and of love unrequited.
The only time that this underlining feeling isn't felt for me is during the singing of the only cover song "Heart with no Companion" which is strange because it's a track written by fellow Canadian Leonard Cohen (the master of the downer song) for Ron's version is the only track on the album that rocks a bit. To close the album Ron has chosen to include another version of "There's a Rhythm" which has Daniel Lanois playing electric guitar on it, Mr Lanois also produced this version. As quietly as this collection had began it finishes, this album is barely 43 minutes long and along the way the tracks that you have heard on the journey to get there will have had touched your heart and made you feel the pain of longing and heartache. An album that is perfect for going through a break-up, that's what I've used it for in the past anyway it helped me....
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