It is time that Canada realized what a national treasure Joel Plaskett is. Whether with his band The Emergency or on his own solo recording, Plaskett keeps writing perfect pop songs with lyrics that will stick to you like peanut butter on the roof of your mouth. Now, in a time of music industry doom and gloom he has the audacity to release a triple CD Three.
There are 27 new Plaskett gems including the closer “On & On & On” which clocks in just north of 12 minutes. Fourteen of the tunes incorporate the same three words in their titles and the same playfulness carries on with lyrics such as “You be April Stevens, I’ll be April Wine,” “Talk is cheap, but music’s cheaper” and, lamenting a broken relationship, “I need a telescope not a telephone.” This is a career defining epic.
This work is so stripped-down and intimate, at times you feel like you have snuck into Joel’s living room for an impromptu jam with friends. As the criminally overlooked Art Bergmann once hissed “give me some emotion, something I can chew on.” Joel Plaskett delivers a three-course meal.