Ron Sexsmith, Canada’s preeminent purveyor of melancholic melody, is back with Hangover Terrace, his 18th studio album, announced for a release on August 29th via Cooking Vinyl. The first single, “Don’t Lose Sight,” offers a familiar, reassuring balm, a gentle acoustic strum underpinning a message of quiet perseverance. It’s classic Sexsmith, but the album’s title hints at a curdled contentment, a departure from the rustic homilies of his more recent output.
Fresh from his Sexsmith at Sixty tour in late 2024, the songwriter extended his UK stay, trading the pastoral for the metropolitan buzz of London’s Eastcote Studios. The result, he suggests, is a record steeped in the “emotional residue” of the pandemic years, a “wounded and introspective” collection colored by personal loss and a rawer worldview. Hangover Terrace, as a concept, feels less like a physical place and more like a collective state of mind, the lingering headache after a global fever dream.
Working again with producer Martin Terefe, the sessions were reportedly a spontaneous affair, a revolving door of collaborators including Ed Harcourt and, unexpectedly, legendary producer Chris Kimsey. This freewheeling environment seems to have pulled Sexsmith from his comfort zone, with songs tackling everything from the housing crisis (“Camelot Towers”) to spiritual reckonings (“Angel on My Shoulder”). At 61, Sexsmith isn’t reinventing his sound so much as letting the accumulated anxieties of the world seep into his impeccably crafted compositions…surveying the emotional wreckage and, as ever, finding the bruised but resilient heart of the matter.
Hangover Terrace will be available from August 29th.
Hangover Terrace Tracklist
1 . Don’t Lose Sight [03:23]
2 . Cigarette and Cocktail [02:58]
3 . Damn Well Please [02:55]
4 . Easy For You To Say [03:45]
5 . Camelot Towers [04:06]
6 . It’s Been A While [02:30]
7 . House of Love [03:02]
8 . Rose Town [02:31]
9 . Please Don’t Tell Me Why [02:34]
10 . Outside Looking In [02:52]
11 . Angel On My Shoulder [03:23]
12 . When Will The Morning Come [02:34]
13 . Burgoyne Woods [02:51]
14 . Must Be Something Wrong With Her [04:05]