Ron Sexsmith Carousel One (Warner) ★★★★

He is, quite simply, one of Canada’s greatest natural resources. An endless wellspring of songsmithery that never fails to engage, never disappoints. For two decades and more than a dozen albums, Ron Sexsmith has delivered some of the finest pairings of words and music that have set him apart from his contemporaries and set him among other Canadian legends such as Gordon Lightfoot. He’s done so by never chasing trends, never entirely going all-in on making the big time, merely focusing on honest emotions and sentiments in timeless structure and form. So why would Carousel One be any different? Why would one expect something different or drastically uncharacteristic from the man? You shouldn’t. About the only thing that needs clarifying is the tone. He seemingly answers that right out of the gate with album opener Sure As the Sky, a love song that’s certainly not unfamiliar terrain for Sexsmith but one that ends with the lines “As sure as the sky is/I know that things are looking up/Yes I know things are looking up.” And, yes, Carousel One, which was recorded with a sense of encompassing warmth by Jim Scott, finds the singer-songwriter generally in a lighter frame of mind than some of his past sad outings, ones that have unfairly painted him as the dour man’s Ray Davies. Here, he’s relaxed and in his element. Happy. Celebratory. Content. He furthers that sentiment later with tracks such as Sun’s Coming Out and Lord Knows, which finds him singing/mumbling “Lord knows I’ve seen happier days/Haven’t we all and so anyway/Since we’re just hanging around/ Let’s hit the town and start drinking.”