NNNNN (highest rating)

This is Wiseman's second album for non-label Blocks Recording Club, and this time he brings in a much larger cast of musicians, including Mary Margaret O'Hara, Sarah Harmer, Don Kerr and Julie Penner, among many others. While there may have been more hands making the final product than on his last outing, this album seems like it could be his most personal and intimate yet, eschewing the politically charged themes and playful, sardonic romps of past outings; this time it's all heartbreak songs all the time. An exercise in variations on a theme, it's a focused and centred album, reining in some of the scatterbrained quality that long-time Wiseman fans have grown accustomed to. He'll still probably never end up on pop radio, but he's one of the rare masters of that delicate turn of phrase that changes what started out sounding like a joke into a truly moving moment.
benjamin boles
http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2006-11-16/music_feature5.php