Review: Ron Sexsmith, Diana Ross

Review: Ron Sexsmith, Diana Ross

Ron Sexsmith 'Time Being': Aidin Vaziri | Ron Sexsmith missed his big pop moment years ago -- when Coldplay's Chris Martin was singing on his albums, David Gray was opening his shows and Elvis Costello was dropping his name. That doesn't mean the Canadian singer-songwriter has stopped making unreasonably good music. His 10th album, "Time Being," is full of the wry observations, late-night ruminations and somber melodies fans have come to depend on. While Mitchell Froom's industrial-strength production doesn't always serve Sexsmith's warm voice best, coming-of-middle-age songs like "I Think We're Lost" and "The Grim Trucker" are full of light and shade, with thoughtful nods to the Beatles and Bob Dylan. Besides, Sexsmith is not entirely a lost cause -- Kiefer Sutherland co-owns his new label.

Diana Ross 'I Love You': Aidin Vaziri | The success of "Dreamgirls" has put Diana Ross back on the public's mind. Even though the film offers a highly fictionalized take on her storied career with the Supremes, it's better than the attention the 62-year-old singer was getting in the tabloids earlier in the decade. She's already sought out personal rehabilitation; now it's time to do the same for her career. With "I Love You," her first new studio album in more than seven years, Ross (left at Cupertino's Flint Center in 2004) is banking on the patented Rod Stewart Formula for Comeback Success: Cover every easy-listening standard under the sun and hope that one sticks. The first shock is her voice, no longer the honeyed purr that gave us classics such as "Where Did Our Love Go?" and "Love Hangover." Now it rumbles along like Marianne Faithfull's eight-packs-a-day croak. Then there is the horror of hearing Ross resign herself to karaoke versions of infernal waiting-room ballads such as "You Are So Beautiful" and "Always and Forever." And her version of Berlin's '80s prom anthem "Take My Breath Away"? No thanks. But the queen of Motown hasn't lost it entirely. She glides through Marvin Gaye's "I Want You" with expected grace and offers up a spellbinding version of Burt Bacharach's "The Look of Love" before delivering the disc's shining moment, a sun-streaked spin on Bill Withers' "Lovely Day." As with her life, a little more quality control would have gone a long way.