Ryan's Ron Sexsmith Review

It's the end of summer as I write this. Not officially,; the solstice is still a few weeks away, but we did just make through the unofficial end of summer that is Labour Day. The temperature even collaborated with that, coming down to the single digits for a couple of days this week.

This is kind of ironic, as Ron Sexsmith's new album, Long Player Late Bloomer, feels like a spring album more than it does anything else. It's a light, fun album, an album full of seventh chords and syncopation, of breathless lyrics and hope. Hope's a tricky thing to accomplish in today's indie rock world, as is earnestness. Both have gotten a bit of a bad rap over the years, victims of the forced, fake sort of earnestness one can associate with Celine Dion or the pop tarts that dominated the last decade of popular music. Still, the fact that saccharine gives you cancer doesn't stop sugar from being sweet, and the hopefulness that Sexsmith displays throughout this album is very welcome. All this makes it a little bit like Sexsmith's other albums, to be honest, which the listener might see as being either a credit or a drawback, depending on how they feel about the type of music he makes.

If you've been paying close attention to the past few weeks' worth of reviews around here, you may have noticed that I've been a little down on the albums we've been reviewing, and that I had to actively search to try to find something nice to say about them. That isn't the case here at all, and while I'll admit that there's a possibility the context of those other albums may have influenced how much I appreciated this one, it still is an objectively good album for the reasons I've outlined.

There's a song in the middle of the album called I'm In The Middle of Love that's a perfect example of this. It's just as goofy and fun as the title suggests, without becoming cloying or sappy. If I had to pick a stand-out track, that'd be it, but honestly all 13 songs on this album are well worth your time.

Gary's Ron Sexsmith Review

There are certain constants in this world - unmistakable truths that exist. The sun will always rise and set, Coldplay will never put out an album that isn’t complete cheese and no one will ever take Nicolas Cage seriously as an actor.

Ron Sexsmith is one of those constants. Regardless of your musical tastes or preferences, we can all agree that Sexsmith puts out solid, easy to digest music with a Canadiana flare. His voice is instantly recognizable - like Kermit the frog crooning over an acoustic guitar.

So it should come as no surprise that Long Player, Late Bloomer is that in spades. It’s upbeat, catchy and sure to have you whistling the hooks for a week. It’s a great album to have on in the background during a dinner party, or while you cook dinner or flip through a magazine on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

It’s also why I’ll probably never listen to this album again.

Yes - it’s all the things I just mentioned, but for whatever reason it does nothing for me - and that kills me. I’m so worried I’m not getting it. I have to be missing something. I keep waiting for someone to tell me what that is so I can love this album unconditionally. But nothing.

I even feel guilty writing this because Sexsmith seems like just about the most genuine, all-around nice guy in the music biz. I think I would die inside if ever read this (but let’s be realistic).

This is the first album we’ve reviewed that I can’t point my finger at any one problem or fault or misstep to justify why I can’t get behind it.

The musician in me recognizes the effort and songmanship that went into this album. Sure, songs like Miracle border on 70s  yacht-rock like Steely Dan or Christopher Cross - but deep down everyone likes a little "Ride Like the Wind?"

Hardly a slight.

And songs like Eye Candy, Believe It When I See It and The Reason Why are so uplifting and hooky I feel like - with a little work - I could become a fan. Maybe.

Long Player, Late Bloomer is Ron Sexsmith doing what he does best - and that’s being Ron Sexsmith. He clearly writes the music he knows and could care less what some hack of a blogger thinks about that.

I’m sorry Ron...I didn’t want to let you down.

Key Tracks: Eye Candy, Believe It When I See It, The Reason Why

Ryan's Braids Review

I had an awkward feeling while listening to this album. It felt like I'd heard it before. Which seemed unlikely, because I know I only got a copy of it a few days ago, when I started listening to it to review it for this blog, and as far as I could remember I hadn't heard it on the radio or any of the music podcasts I listen to. The feeling was definitely there, though, nagging at me every time I hit play, like a piece of unpopped popcorn that gets stuck in your teeth and you spend days trying to find a way to work it out from in there. Then, finally, it hit me: I hadn't heard the album before, but I have been listening to Polaris shortlisted albums for the past three years and this sounded an awful lot like a lot of them.

I think that if someone were to sit down and try to compose an album specifically to appeal to Polaris judges, they would end up with something not unlike Native Speaker by Braids. I'm not saying that Braids went into the studio consciously thinking that, but the result is uncanny. You've got the haunting, feminine lyrics that one could associate with Tegan and Sara or Kathleen Edwards, the atmospheric, detached feel of a Besnard Lakes or Timbre Timbre album, and the electronic influence of a Caribou or Weeknd. For all of those combinations, though, it didn't feel like there was really anything new here - the sum of those disparate parts was no greater than any of the pieces that it felt influenced by.

I'm sure this album has its supporters, but when stacking it up against the rest of the shortlisted albums (and even some that were overlooked by the Polaris community), I can't help but feel it falls far short of the rest of them.

Dave's Braids Review

Braids – “Native Speaker”

Okay I’ve listened to it and I’ve tried and I’ve tried, but I don’t get what all the hype is about with Braids and their debut album Native Speaker. It’s good to point, but it’s trying to hard to be something it’s not, and that’s where it loses me.


I love it when a band gets lost in the process of creation, but listening to this, it feels like Braids calculated every move, and didn’t account for the most important one in the creative process – emotional reaction. It all feels too structured and over contrived for me to enjoy fully – it’s as if they were saying “next we have to do this and that, it’ll be so much cooler”, instead they should have let it happen a little more. Now that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy parts of it.


The subtleties of the album are great, the way they transition in a out of songs, the start of the album as a whole, brings you in with a curious wonderment, and the overall unique sounds used play together well, but as Gary says – go on WAY to long, like a bad SNL skit. We get it. Give us something different.


Braids is trying so hard on this album. What they are trying to do is where they lose me though. They’re a young band and will grow into something special; I still feel their best album is yet to come out of them.

Gary's Braids Review

Oh Braids, you poor things. A solid little album that suffers from being reviewed late in the process. I won’t deny that I’m suffering from a little reviewer exhaustion, but let’s be fair - this album did nothing to change that.

Native Speaker is a meandering, atmospheric album that talks a lot but never really gets to the point. With only 7 songs you might have assumed they would be adept at narrowing their focus. But when you see most songs run in the area of 7-8 minutes long, you start to understand why this album ends up being...well...boring.

Sure it’s beautiful and soaring and Raphaelle Standell-Preston’s voice is gorgeous. Hell, the music itself is inventive and ear catching - for 2 or 3 minutes. But if you haven’t said what you need to after 5 or 6 minutes, you’d better bring something pretty epic to the table.

I know what you’re thinking - who am I to dictate how long or short a song should be, and generally I don’t have a problem with long-form songs. But if you go back and check out the best musical tomes, they have a way of keeping things fresh and vibrant for the duration - something Braids just doesn't do.

Tracks like Same Mum and Plath Heart start out with the greatest of intentions and sound great, but then end up falling flat. Like a J.K. Rowling book this album would have benefited greatly from an editor (or more ruthless producer).

So yes I feel bad that Braids fell in the order where it did, but I doubt the review would have been all that different had it been slotted as the first or second album. And against meatier pieces from Arcade Fire and Hey! Rosetta, it frankly never stood a chance.

Bon Chance.

Ryan's Galaxie review

I've started noticing this pattern when it comes to the Polaris shortlist, now that we've been posting to this blog for a few years. First is that there's always one French band that makes the shortlist. If Iwere a far more cynical person, I would chalk that up to an unspoken quota system on behalf of the organizers, but I know that's not actually the case. From a technical standpoint it would be difficult to game the system in that way; more importantly, I think that it would work completely against what the organizers of the prize are trying to accomplish, so they'd have no reason to do so. It's an interesting coincidence, is all I'm saying.

Another part of this pattern is that the one French band always puts out an album that's absolutely fascinating. The shortlist on a whole is always an eclectic group, of course, but that French band always seems to stand apart from the others (and not just due to the language barrier).

We're not here to talk about patterns, though, were here to talk about Montreal's own Galaxie, and their incredible album Tigre et Diesel. It's a short album (if memory serves, the shortest one this year), but it's also an intense one – Galaxie seems to know going in that their time is limited, so they don't want to waste a single second and bring the rock as quickly as they can. That intensity really works to the album's advantage – it grabs you and drags you out onto the metaphorical dancefloor, letting you lose yourself in the screaming guitars and electronic beats. In a longer album I think this intensity would become either overwhelming or tiring, but it works excellently here.

I won't go so far as to say that this is my favourite album of the year, but it's up there for sure.

Dave's Galaxie Review

GALAXIE – Tigre et diesel

I have no idea what Galaxie are singing about on this album - but I like the way it sounds. There's an intense Brit-pop element but also a techno influence and for most of the album it works really well. It ebbs and flows between disco stompers and reflective ballads seamlessly.

Galaxie appears to be the red headed step-child of the Polaris Shortlist this year – accessible, poppy, and danceable – it’s hard to find that on the list, but here they are, and they fit. As Gary mentioned – they are Primal Scream almost more than Primal Scream.

For me, there is a huge language barrier, I can catch phrases and words but I’m not a fluent speaker of French so context is lost on me but I get the jist - which sucks for me when I want the whole picture.

There is nothing outstanding for me about this album, but it’s really good. I think it’s solid and fits in nicely amongst the shortlist, but at the end of the day it feels middle of the road. It stands out but for me it's not as much of a frontrunner as other noms are. The album is still fun, but I don't know if I'll look back and still like this album as much this time next year.

KEY TRACKS: Piste 1, Encore, Camouflar