Great, Great, Great!Â
Joel Plaskett
ThreeÂ
(MapleMusic)Â
****1/2
When veteran indie rocker and CanCon treasure Joel Plaskett recently took a brief hiatus from his backing band, The Emergency, he didn’t just end up recording an album on the fly — oh no. Instead, Plaskett wound up with a three-disc, 27-song magnum opus that, in addition to showcasing the wild breadth of his lovably peppy brand of songwriting, is a high-water mark in his already-storied career. The various references to the number three are kind of interesting as a unifying concept — the discs take on the mini-themes of impending departure, absence, and reunion, respectively — but what strikes me most about Three is the strength of the individual songs: the freewheeling drum machine rock of “Wishful Thinking,†the blazing horns on “Through & Through & Through,†or the honey-soaked female backup vocals on “Deny, Deny, Deny.†Not every song is a home run, obviously, but on a project as sweeping and consistently rewarding as this, the odd weird mistake only enhances the overall experience. (See The White Album for more details.)
MICHAEL HINGSTON
April 11, 2009