JOEL PLASKETT EMERGENCY
Ashtray Rock
MapleMusic
· Plaskett takes a trip back to teenage wasteland.
Joel Plaskett has made no secret that his new record is a full-on concept album. While Ashtray Rock is laced with the kind of ambition that classic concept rock demands, he tempers his vision with an earnestness and charm that keeps the music from veering into the realm of the ridiculous. The basic story involves two teenage bandmates fighting over a girl, but Plaskett’s real topic is more general – youth, and more specifically, the importance that music played in his own pre-iTunes youth. While some of the songs find Plaskett reaching a bit, Ashtray Rock is a sweetly nostalgic (albeit appropriately angsty) trip back to days of drinking in the woods and driving around with the cassette player cranked up as loud as it would go.
Musically, Plaskett is his usual solid self and his references to early Springsteen come off a lot more honestly than those of more stylized bands like The Killers. Whether intentional or not, Ashtray Rock’s sound hearkens back to the days of the Murderecords scene in the early ’90s when Plaskett was cutting his teeth in Thrush Hermit and The Superfriendz and Sloan ruled campus radio. It may not make for the most revolutionary music, but for 30-somethings missing their glory days, Ashtray Rock is a wistful blast back to the past.
3/5
ELIZABETH CHORNEY-BOOTH
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