Best Song Ever: April 2013 (Round 3)

Tokyo Police Club, "Frankenstein" vs. Richard & Linda Thompson, "Shoot Out the Lights"
Winner: "Shoot Out the Lights"

Talking Heads, "Once in a Lifetime" vs. Arcade Fire, "Ready to Start"
Winner: "Once in a Lifetime"

The La's, "I Can't Sleep" vs. The Who, "Behind Blue Eyes"
Winner: "Behind Blue Eyes"

Props to all of our quarter-finalists. These three matches were easy and tough: easy because the winners were all bona fide classics with reputations and legacies to back them up, tough because the opponents are all recent favourites that have gained familiarity for me through this blog. After reading an article about the top albums of the past 25 years, near the beginning of my run writing this blog, I listened to the La's "I Can't Sleep" (and "Timeless Melody" and of course "There She Goes") over and over on YouTube for nights on end until my copy ofthe album finally arrived. Fittingly, the sound of that song related to my own enthusiasm to be listening to and enjoying music for the first time. But that joy is best shown, perhaps even made possible, by the Whos of the world, the "Behind Blue Eyes," the sometimes indulgent but ultimately epic and affecting versions of rock and roll that rip us out of reality and place us somewhere huge.

Tokyo Police Club's chilled over closing number put up a good fight, with its precision drumbeat and impeccable engineered sound, with every element just properly applied, those synths and guitars never fighting against each other but still moving in unison. And to Arcade Fire, of course. Both bands created modern classics that demonstrate exactly how good music can be in the 2010s, when made by people that care about what goes onto a record. Tokyo was a scrappy underdog here, known mainly in Canada as a fun band to see when they're in town. Arcade Fire is rightly hailed by most critics (and rightly disliked by people who don't like them because nothing's for everybody.) I love how "Ready to Start" captures the restlessness of youth, with its droning riff that seems to pace the floor like a nervous wreck, pondering questions that seem deep from the inside, like every teen and suburbanite.

Can a song that's been recorded in the last ten years stand up to decades of a legacy? I didn't hear "Shoot Out the Lights" very long before I started this blog and heard those songs, and while "Once In A Lifetime" seems always to have been around, it's not like I was there when it was first out. So it could be that I'm just bowing to the weight that the years have lent them. Or it could just be that all the pieces to fall into place in these great songs. The simple, vague, distant lyrics of "Shoot Out The Lights" tell you everything you need to know, but it's already been suggested by the opening two notes of that Link Wray like riff. I could swerve myself and everyone by putting AF over TH, but I don't even think Win Butler would. I could do it, if I didn't listen to "Once in a Lifetime" and went solely on what I think I remember about that song, but those sounds, those drums, that Tina Weymouth bass, that David Byrne delivery. There's not another song like it in existence and I hope someday a better writer than me pairs these two songs together and unpacks their true similarities: not only their moody sonic backdrops, but their alienated lyrics about growing mature and comfortable.

my bloody valentine, "only tomorrow" vs. Joel Plaskett Emergency, "Written All Over Me"

But then there was one really tough call. Both are songs I heard for the first time in the last year or so. You have to be of a certain perspective to even appreciate My Bloody Valentine, with its rough, hazy, unpredictable sound, but anyone can love Joel Plaskett, a master of pop songcraft who always manages to seem inventive anyway. He and his band are objectively great at what they do.

"Only Tomorrow" was a song I singled out on MBV, basically the moment I realized I was truly listening to another great work from this band, that their wild, freewheeling yet immaculately assembled music - every odd tangent and impulse is in fact worked over and carefully considered - is still alive and well.

And while I thought that was a done deal, that MBV's essence was so transcendent that they would be carried to the next round, I listened again, really listened to the relatively compact, uncomplicated pop rock song Plaskett had written, as it reached a transcendent quality of its own with a guitar solo that lets you know: This Is Joel Plaskett. And hearing him in those six strings, nonverbally pouring himself into your headphones, you just can't help but feel good. I'm calling this one an upset.

Winner: "Written All Over Me"

Best Song Ever: April 2013 (Round 2)

Tokyo Police Club, "Frankenstein" vs. The Exploding Hearts, "I'm a Pretender"
Winner: "Frankenstein"

Richard & Linda Thompson, "Shoot Out the Lights" vs. The Who, "Substitute"
Winner: "Shoot Out the Lights"

Jack White, "Blunderbuss" vs. Talking Heads, "Once in a Lifetime"
Winner: "Once in a Lifetime"

Tokyo Police Club, "End of a Spark" vs. my bloody valentine, "Only Tomorrow"
Winner: "only tomorrow"

Deer Tick, "The Bump" vs. The La's "I Can't Sleep"
Winner: "I Can't Sleep"

Zeus, "Kindergarten" vs. The Who, "Behind Blue Eyes"
Winner: "Behind Blue Eyes"

Round one was a bit of a learning experience. For obvious reasons, I had to learn the decision-making process: how do you judge two songs, sometimes completely different, against each other? Is one form of song inherently better than another? Do old songs, with decades of weight and a lifetime of listening, take precedence over recent favourites? Are originals inherently better than covers? On that last point, I find it very regrettable that none of the covers in the competition made it to round two. Those were some very tough calls.

I was pretty sheepish about the message I wanted to send about the nature of this exercise. In one sense it's an idle musing, the equivalent of sitting around in your basement with your buddies and going, "Who or Zeppelin? Floyd or Queen?" I don't mean to insult any song by voting it out. These are all songs I listen to, that I choose to have with me at all time. This is all quality music and worthy of recognition. But in a real sense, they are competing against each other. They're competing for your dollars and your time. The question at the heart of each of these matchups is: Which song would I rather be listening to? Which song could I listen to all day, and which song would I eventually turn to something else? Yes, some of the get by on personal attachment, or legacy, or being more ambitious works (here's to you, "Behind Blue Eyes," which carries all three) but when we listen to music this are factors, they are called up in our heads time and again when we click on these songs. The nebulous qualities a song needs to be better or best, to one man's ears, are all fair game.

The other learning experience was of course that I set way too much of a pace when it came to the literal verbal content of the article. I can't expect myself to write up an entire summary for each matchup, simply because I will end up re-writing the same virtues about each song until they are gone. A lot of these weren't easy, but they were definitive in the end: Talking Heads beating Jack White was one I had to double and triple-check to make sure I felt. Putting "Frankenstein" ahead of "I'm a Pretender" looks, on paper, like I'm putting a somewhat arty, somewhat fancy indie pop composition over a really good ragged pop-punk/power pop song just because one is more serious. -- The Tokyo vs. MBV matchup only seems to confirm this. I don't want it to be true, but maybe it is. But those songs that won had a lot of heart and a lot of great scenery, instead of the raw muscle exhibited by their opponents.

At the end of the round there were only two matches I really agonized over, because in a way both songs in each combo were similar, neither really had the edge:

Gin Blossoms, "Hey Jealousy" vs. Joel Plaskett Emergency, "Written All Over Me"

The Gin Blossoms bring their A-game to this gem, a frothy slacker anthem for the 90s. It's jokey and pleading, a great double-meaning, a song for all seasons. It's basically everything I love about 90s music, and I think that guitar break in the middle is rad. Oh, but Joel. This song has all the heart and humour you could want. His guitar slips from a muscular riff to a acrobatic, even playful, solo. A great example of his mastery of form.

Winner: "Written all Over Me"

Aerosmith, "Moving Out" vs. Arcade Fire, "Ready to Start"

I'm "biased" in the sense that Aerosmith is my on-the-record favourite band, so every song from them is going to get serious consideration. And this is a pretty good song, despite its early place in their discography. I've heard few riffs like it, and its lyrics abstractly amount to, if not philosophy, then certainly a certain kind of poetry. It's dusty, stoned gypsy rock, and it gets absolutely everything right.

That said, I'm not biased, in that I have no stake in the the competition. There's nothing to gain if I advance "Movin' Out" without convincing myself, properly, that it beats a key track from the great Suburbs album, Arcade Fire (or was it the other way around?) From the getgo, "Ready to Start" is a dynamic, gripping track that does a great job drilling directly into your chest. Neither's lyrics are totally straightforward. Once is a call to nature and isolation, one is a reflection on art vs. commerce.

It would be easy for me to pick Aerosmith just because I've been listening to it for decades. It would be easy for me to pick Arcade Fire just to satisfy the need to show that newer songs are on the same level as classics and personal faves. I'm moving Arcade Fire forward to let them fend for themselves against exceptional competition. I know they deserve it. This is a great song, and it's a very lucky thing it wasn't up against "Sweet Emotion."

Winner: "Ready to Start"

Best Song Ever: April 2013 (Round 1)

I've been going a little stir crazy lately. The little elves inside my brain that write my reviews have been fatigued since the new year: despite being flush with great new releases by the likes of Hollerado and David Bowie, not to mention finally getting into Husker Du, it's a little tough getting anything going, as far as writing for this site. I'm reluctant to return to the grind. Then an idea hit me. A really stupid idea, but maybe a fun one.

About a year ago, the entertainment site Vulture ran a series of articles designed to determine the best TV drama of the past 20 years. They used a tournament bracket setup and a panel of esteemed judges. It made for a really entertaining bunch of articles. Every now and again I have thought it might be interesting to find a way to incorporate something like that into SOTW.

So what has happened is that I had iTunes select 32 random tunes from my (active/checked) library: some are things I've covered on SOTW, some are my old personal favourites, some are objective classics and some are recent gems. And maybe some suck but I just happen to have them. Although the idea of pitting entertainments against each other is inherently an incorrect way of looking at it (I cannot stress that enough,) I am nakedly admitting that I'm just doing this for shits and giggles. The song that wins this tournament (be thankful I'm not doing full albums) can't possibly be the literal best song ever. By necessity, it's something that I listen to anyway, and I loves me some music so I'm not going to be too harsh on any of these songs. In doing this, hopefully, it will spotlight a lot of great tunes that haven't come up in regular conversation lately. Let's speed through the first half of our opening round:

Tokyo Police Club, "Frankenstein" vs. Japandroids, "Fire's Highway"

Tokyo was one of the first albums I truly, completely loved after starting this blog, and "Frankenstein" is a fantastic closer to that album, acting as a comedown from the jittery, hooky synth-power-pop, with its mellotronic tones and quivering guitars, and that staggering drumbeat. It's very odd that this competition begins with something that wraps up its original album so completely and satisfactorily.

It's an old favourite versus a new one, though, because Japandroids was one of the best albums of 2012, and "Fire's Highway," with its splashing riffs and thundering drums sums up its qualities succinctly. It's got those echoing, anthemic "oh's" and coarse vocals. "Fire's Highway" is definitely a great piece of an excellent whole, but "Frankenstein" is a complete listening experience on its own. It gets the nod.

Winner: "Frankenstein"

David Bowie, "Love is Lost" vs. The Exploding Hearts, "I'm a Pretender"

In one corner, a dense, pulsing, organ-fueled, moody track from David Bowie's great new album. In the other, a snotty, brash piece of mid-2000s pop punk. You might think you know the answer, but you don't. All things being equal, and the Bowie album being great, its newness works against it, and I haven't had enough time to become as attached to it, especially not this particular song, as I have to the perfectly raucous Exploding Hearts.

Winner: "I'm a Pretender"



Joel Plaskett Emergency, "Penny For Your Thoughts" vs. Richard & Linda Thompson, "Shoot Out the Lights"

Oof. This bracket is a killer. "Penny" is a key part of the terrific concept album that is Ashtray Rock, a cheeky, playful and catchy as hell ode to young love. And "Shoot Out The Lights" is a lumbering, towering freefall of depression and despair. It just hits that sweet spot. I've got to give it to RT, who bring one of my favourite guitar solos ever to this track. I feel like Joel would understand.

Winner: "Shoot Out The Lights"

The Who, "Substitute" vs. Japandroids, "For The Love of Ivy"

The BC Duo face tough competition for the second time tonight, going up against major-minor Who fave, "Substitute." Not the most beloved Who song, but also not my favourite track off Celebration Rock -- if it swapped places with "Fire's Highway" this would be a running battle. In the end, The Who's original takes it over Japandroid's cover. The best Who songs are quirky and weird and hard rocking all at once, and this is no exception.

Winner: The Who



Jack White, "Blunderbuss" vs. The Eels, "The Longing"

Not the closest matchup of the tournament so far, but definitely the most downbeat. The shimmering Nashville Skyline-esque beauty of White's solo debut title track goes up against a free verse poem set to a ghostly waltz by Mark Oliver "E" Everett. And make no mistake, as part of El Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire (which I'm totally gonna review soon) it's a key track, bringing a deep dimension of pain and despair in its refrain ("Surely there are other things to life / But I can't think of one single thing / That matters more than just to see her...") but "Blunderbuss" is one of the best tracks on one of the best albums of last year.

Winner: "Blunderbuss"

Arcade Fire, "Wasted Hours" vs. Talking Heads, "Once in a Lifetime"

This seems to be a recurring theme: matching songs that are great as part of a complete package against songs that can be listened to at any time in any situation. The Neil Young-tinged "Wasted Hours" is a great part of the overarching sound of The Suburbs, with its dusky-lazily strummed twang. But "Once in a Lifetime" is fucking "Once in a Lifetime!" I don't even need to tell you why it wins.

Winner: "Once in a Lifetime"

Nirvana, "Sliver" vs. Aerosmith, "Movin' Out"

Holy shit, this is regrettable. I have actually said "Sliver" is my favourite Nirvana song. Not always, but I have. It just sums them up so perfectly, their power and poppiness, their angst and perverse humour, writing a punk-grunge song from the perspective of an angsty child forced to stay with his grandparents. "Grandma take me home" is maybe one of the most surprisingly awesome rock lyrics ever (up there with the Pixies' "it's educational!") But look who they're up against. Much to the chagrin of many of my bemused colleagues, I have professed my lifelong love for that band time and again. And "Movin' Out" is not minor Aerosmith, it's got that sinewy riff, those hippie hangover post-psychedelic philosophy class lyrics that are utter nonsense but work better because of it. Rip the heart right out of my chest why don't you.

Winner: "Movin' Out"



Arcade Fire, "Ready to Start" vs. Lit, "My Own Worst Enemy"

Arcade Fire makes its return appearance coming up against one of the biggest rock hits of the 90's. And I love me some 90s rock, but with one of the most dense, subtle-yet-rocking tracks off The Suburbs, the 2011 Best Album Grammy winners take it. That lyrics, "I would rather be alone than pretend I feel all right" just does it for me, man.



Talking Heads, "Take Me To The River" vs. Tokyo Police Club, "End of a Spark"

I think Talking Heads' reading of Al Green's sexual-angst-via-religion "Take Me To The River," as a tightly-wound plastic funk explosion is one of the greatest covers ever committed to tape. And "End of a Spark" happens to be one of my favourite tracks off Champ and a terrific piece of 2010 alt-power-pop. And with both bands already having a slot in Round 2, it's an interesting scenario. If the Heads didn't win, it would be because it's not the even-better Stop Making Sense version but the original recorded version. Or perhaps because there's an inherent push against covers in this contest.

Winner: "End of a Spark"

Aerosmith, "Lightning Strikes" vs. my bloody valentine, "only tomorrow"

Two more different tracks from my iPod, you could hardly find. On the one hand, sludgy early-80s hard rock from Aerosmith's redacted era. On the other hand, a track from My Bloody Valentine's 2013 comeback album, the gauzy, low-fi, moaning, squealing, sighing, shoegaze epic mbv. It's bad enough I gave 'Smith the nod over Nirvana, I know James Leask would flay me if I passed over mbv for this one. Or at the very least, he would cancel my scheduled appearance on his podcast next week. Luckily for him, and mbv, this is minor Aerosmith we're talking about: Joe Perry wasn't even with the band for this album, and while I think it happens to be underrated, it's still not in the same league as one of the best tunes from this terrific album, mbv: I love the way it builds and culminates in that staggering, beautiful riff.

Winner: "only tomorrow"

The Hives, "Hate To Say I Told You So" vs. Gin Blossoms, "Hey Jealousy"

Now here's a matchup: the razor sharp garage punk of early-2000s Hives and the warm fuzzy aw-shucks self deprecation of the Gin Blossoms. It's not an easy win for the Blossoms, but it's a clean one.

Winner: "Hey Jealousy"

Joel Plaskett Emergency, "Written All Over Me" vs. Arctic Monkeys, "Brianstorm"

Joel! So glad you're back. Here we see the opening track from his "Truthfully, Truthfully" album paired against the opening track of Arctic Monkeys' second disc. For me, Favourite Worst Nightmare takes a few tracks to really hit its stride, and "Brian" is an only-okay holdover from the Whatever People Say I Am era. "Written All Over Me," meanwhile, exudes all the charm and wit that permeates all of Plaskett's music, a mischievous, down home chunk of riffage that always gets me going. Great curtain raiser.

Winner: "Written All Over Me"

Deer Tick, "The Bump" vs. Deer Tick, "Chevy Express"

Now here's a wild card. I had never even listened to Deer Tick before a few weeks ago, when someone showed me A.V. Club's Undercover series, featuring a terrific take on one of my all-time favourite songs, Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta." I got the album, Divine Providence, and I liked it, and then moved on. Then my random playlist generator sat these two songs, neither of which I could recall from memory, right next to each other, the only instance in round one of a band going up against itself. So I left it in - and revised my proposed "only one song per band" rule, just to see how it played out. "The Bump" is them at their bar band best, and "Chevy Express" is a more intimate ballad. Both great and for different reasons, but I've gotta give it to the former.

Winner: "The Bump"



Matt Mays, "Indio" vs. The La's "I Can't Sleep"

Matt Mays released a great album in 2012, which I will review soon, and "Indio" is a terrific intro to it, with its dusty, mystic southwestern feel. Against weaker opposition, it might have won, but "I Can't Sleep" is The La's at their peak power, right up there with "There She Goes." Life's not fair sometimes.

Winner: "I Can't Sleep"

The Vaccines, "Wetsuit" vs. Zeus, "Kindergarten"

"Wetsuit" brings to mind tunes like "Favourite Food" from Tokyo Police Club, or Joshua Tree era U2, the way it builds modestly to ignite a towering inferno. It's maybe not as grandiose as all that, but it's a good listen. The first Zeus record was one of my favourite records of 2010, and here's some high spirited madness from them. They edge out the win.

Winner: "Kindergarten"

The Animals, "House of the Rising Sun" vs. The Who, "Behind Blue Eyes"

It could be the case that this entire tournament is a contest to see who gets to come in second to the winner of this match. Based on reputation alone, these might be the two heaviest hitters of the lot, and they are up against each other in round one. "House of the Rising Sun" was my favourite song as a kid: Eric Burdon's voice is so dour and enigmatic and gloomy, and that guitar is just so perfect, as the organ bubbles under the surface before overtaking it completely.

Both these songs have their mystical qualities. The Who has already advanced in this tournament, but not like this. That was early Who, this is mid-Who, Who's Next, post-Tommy, circa Pete Townshend completely losing his marbles in the Lifehouse debacle and coming back with one of the most phenomenal records of all time. "Behind Blue Eyes" is the hypothetical villain song, building to that great climax, this is that band at nearly their best (besides "Baba O'Riley," for sure.) This is the hardest call of the night. What's more, it comes back to that same dilemma: a great single, or a great album song.

Really listening, really thinking about it, hearing the individual strings of Pete Townshend's guitar, the crawling of John Entwhistle's bass, one of Roger Daltrey's best vocal performances, and then that moment when Keith Moon's drums come in. Songs like this are what you're really thinking of when you think of the Who. And it's not even 8 minutes long. It's actually shorter than its hit single opponent. If I could only hear one of these songs ever again, I don't know if I'd pick the same, but tonight, it has to be.

Winner: "Behind Blue Eyes"



So maybe I do have a bias against covers (although "Rising Sun" may as well be an original.) It's quite a selection I have for myself in Round 2. Place your bets and get ready to get disproportionately mad... if you're not already.

Joel Plaskett Emergency: Scrappy Happiness

Here we check back in with Joel Plaskett & Co. nearly a decade after Truthfully Truthfully, and times have changed, but the music is as bright and wonderful to listen to as ever. The earlier album showcased Plaskett's personality by matching his self-effacing wit with his rock bravado. Scrappy Happiness is a record by the same artist now in his mid-to-late 30's. He's mellowed out some and tamed his incorrigible nature to that of a sly, knowing elder. It's not often I feel like I know enough about an artist just from music that I can go on like this in a review, but Joel Plaskett albums have a welcoming quality to them. It's not that they're autobiographical or confessional, per se, but they're open and honest about what he thinks of the world: he has taken whatever's inside him and made some damn good music out of it. Whenever I think of his music, I think of what Roger Ebert said about David Byrne in Stop Making Sense: "He seems so happy to be alive and making music." On “You’re Mine,” an ode to youthful exuberance, he breathlessly proclaims his love for Husker Du, declares he's Traveling through space and time / To keep my love alive" and screams like a triumphant warrior, "It's 1995! / I'm yours and you are mine, mine, mine!"

This is a warm, good-natured, even nostalgic record. There isn't a speck of bitterness in Plaskett's voice, he's still the earnest, amiable fellow he was on Truthfully, but he's been around. Remember, he started out in the 90's with Thrush Hermit and has spent the time since then grinding away as a rock auteur. Aside from relative obscurity in America, I'd match his career up against anyone who started out in that era. So it's fair to say he's got plenty to look back on. His positive outlook on the past is exemplified in the lyric from "Old Friends" "Sour grapes turn to fine wine / After a few years on a winding vine."

The album's warmth is most explicit on tunes like the dreamy "Habour Boys" and "Slow Dance," which have a timeless quality to them. Plaskett's theme on this album is how music can bind us together, and tie us to a place and time. On the former he proclaims "I came here to bring the noise / To the island girls and the harbour boys." On the latter, he cautions "Is the slow dance my one and only chance to find me a little bit of romance?" After that line, the music of the song kicks into high gear. Joel knows how to build a song, as I praised in my earlier review this week, so that it's not just into-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo, but never too abstract to keep away pop appeal. He's just one of those songwriters who knows the rules well enough to break them properly. "I'm Yours," the delicate, strummy inverse of the snarling "You're Mine," is a sweet, faithful ballad, which looks fondly back at the moment a young couple knows they belong together.

Half the album is mid-to-slow tempo tracks rather than outright rockers, and the album's strength is that they're all distinguished, never repeating a trick. One of the most insidious tracks, this way, is "Old Friends," which begins as a slithering, hypnotic, night club-size torch song, subtly expanding until it's absolutely crushing.

The album reminds me a fair bit of Big Star's #1 Record, the way it matches sweet pop ballads with gut-instinct rock. It has that same spirit that Chilton and Bell infused in their music, the way you can when your love of making music is equal to your love of listening to it. This might even be an album that gets better the more music you listen to. It's not hard to see a connection between the ballads on this album and "Thirteen," the way they look back to youthful experiences with music to find importance in their lives, but even beyond that. "Tough Love" and "Time Flies" have a modest garage funk appeal reminiscent of Big Star's "In The Street" or "Don't Lie To Me." "Somewhere Else" has tinges of R.E.M., which is helped by the fact that Joel can rock a mandolin and vocally isn't that far off from being a Nova Scotian Michael Stipe.

The strength of Plaskett's songwriting - and truthfully, the band's altogether playing - comes at the beginning and end of the album. It opens with a song called "Lightning Bolt," which is a pure visceral thrill to listen to. It's structured to sound almost onomatopoeic, the way it flickers at the beginning like a distant storm, building into rolling thunder, and finally thrashing and wailing like the midst of a heavy electrical storm. The album's closer, "North Star," contains a lot of that self-effacing humour from his earlier albums, as it bops pluckily along, detailing stories of getting hammered and throwing up while talking endlessly into the night about music, which is an experience that is incredibly familiar to me. Its strength is the way it seems like a true denouement for the album, building from the ground up to a great height.

The guy knows his stuff, I'm saying. The fact that this album, and all of his albums, hits so many notes right on, speaks to his abilities. Damnit Joel, why do you do music so good? It's just that his albums are such likeable, friendly things, and kind of overachievers. Even without outright setting up a concept (as he did on Ashtray Rock and more loosely on Three) he puts out a disc of enjoyable, thematically consistent and musically cohesive songs just because that's what he does. That's what experience gets you. Some rockers, when they get older, try too hard to recreate the past. The good ones use it to create the future.


Buy Scrappy Happiness Now: iTunes Canada // iTunes USA // Amazon.ca //

Joel Plaskett Emergency: Truthfully Truthfully

The first song on Joel Plaskett's 2003 album, Truthfully Truthfully, begins with a tangled, twangy sounding guitar, before thickening into a heavy riff that marks the influence of 70's rock that threads throughout Joel's rock songwriting. On Truthfully, there's a confidence to the music that almost kids the listener, matched with the way the lyrics show a very Canadian interest in self-deprecation and suspicion of success. Truthfully, Truthfully almost has two lives, that arena-rock bravado and that shy earnestness. Joel's songwriting keeps the subject matter light and several degrees away from anger or melodrama, but there are gentle putdowns, beginning with that first track, where his admission that "I've got trouble written all over me" sounds less like a boast than a complaint. Another great track is "Mystery & Crime," where Plaskett muses over a relationship gone horrible wrong, where he is the "guilty" party, but still feels put-upon as the situation gets blown out of proportion ("I go to all the parties / And I never have a good time / It's like we're acting out a movie / Mystery & Crime / I never meant to hurt her / Now everybody's screaming murder, murder, murder...") Truth is, on this site, I tend not to fixate too much on lyrics, because I review a lot of music where the lyrics aren't inherent to the enjoyment of the song. But Joel is a for-sure true-blue songwriter. He knows how to turn a phrase, and how to craft a song that will service that.

Looking at songs like "Work Out Fine," "Extraordinary," and "Come on Teacher," are testaments to this. They are loaded with quirky lyrical details to push their stories and characters along. On "Work Out Fine," Plaskett takes a zen approach to the various inconveniences in his life, determined that "Everything will work out fine" just because he says so, while the music is simultaneously at ease and tense. "Extraordinary" is almost parodic, and testifies to Joel's background on the 90's indie rock scene with Thrush Hermit, seeming like something that could have come from a band like Cake or Sloan.

That first half of the album is loaded with character and added value. The second half is very much straightforward, often earnest and in-the-moment rock, exercises in Joel's ability with classic riffage and arena-sized ballads. The piece pivots on ominous "The Red Light" and "Radio Fly," which cracks open Joel's sentimental side with a chorus as big as all outdoors. "You Came Along" is a doe-eyed ballad ballasted by a swaggering rhythm section. "Lights Down Low" is a vintage rocker. Each of the songs have individual flourishes to distinguish them, like the gorgeous guitar break in "The Day" and the way that "All the Pretty Faces" builds to its first chorus and takes off from there. I particularly love the album closer, "Heart to Heart," though, a raggedy minor-key rocker that sounds a bit like Neil Young & Crazy Horse. The way it slips away from the listener ends the album almost as an ellipsis, like there's still more to come... but later.

In the years since this album's release, Joel Plaskett has proven himself one of the most distinctive talents Canada has produced, probably ever. He's earned this distinction, which I just bestowed on him, largely through his more ambitious projects like Ashtray Rock and Three, which show his commitment to developing his craft and setting new projects for himself. But his regular-ass albums are no less appealing, because he's just so goddamn good at what he does. He may play awkward and goofy, but he is most definitely very assured in his artistic talents. When I listen to an album like this, I feel like I "get" the author's voice, that he has really put himself into the work. And while putting yourself into your music doesn't inherently make it better (there are plenty of embarrassingly personal albums that are also awful) when you get someone who knows their work like Plaskett, that self-assurance provides a deep well of material. The songs on this album are so varied, and yet they all have their charms, and all clearly come from the same mind. Terrific.

Buy this album now: iTunes Canada // iTunes USA // Amazon.ca // Amazon.com

#3 - Joel Plaskett Emergency: Ashtray Rock

Yeah, I loved our band, I don't have one regret
I even loved our first two records on cassette.
They were the soundtrack for the night
You and me had that fight
Out in the woods, over some girl we met.
-- "Introduction"

Going back to what I was saying about Pinkerton. If that album's raw, abrasive feel gave it the look of an document of honest, unpolished heartache in progress, here is an album painted generously with a nostalgic sheen, which only highlights rather than obscure the sadness at its core. Its high level of production, beautiful instruments and tight construction draw attention to, rather than distract from, the difficulty of the human heart. I don't have much tolerance for one-dimensional songs of love or heartbreak, and here is an album that manages to hit the double-life of both feelings, the beauty and pain.

I would say that every album on this list could be considered a "concept" album in some sense of the word, bound with underlying themes or motifs. All the albums I've chosen are very deliberate constructions rather than merely collections of songs. This is the only one, though, that is openly conceptual. It tells a story, or at least circles around a loose narrative, outlined in those opening lines: two friends are torn apart when they both meet the same girl at a party in the woods. The reflective tone of the "introduction" informs us we're about to look back to when it all happened. The actual events of the narrative: who did what, hurt whom, remain obscure to me even after 50-odd listens over the past year, but that's not important, because the storytelling here is so strong that I don't have to do too much work to construct the story in my head. All one needs is the suggestions of emotional beats, all of which are hit excellently.

The "Introduction" leads into the wonderful scene-setter, "Drunk Teenagers," which brings us to "Ashtray Rock," a spot in the woods where high schoolers gather to drink whatever booze they could scrounge up. I miss that "getting away with something" feeling of underage drinking, especially since I didn't start drinking until I was 18 anyway. I always get a chill up my spine when I hear that opening zap of fuzzed-over guitars, like a cinematic tracking shot downward over a snowy scene of gathered teens. It's very "In fair Verona where we lay our scene." We get snippets of conversation, including discussions of who can acquire beer, and various drunken ramblings. It's delivered with an anthemic rocking quality that sums up the scene quite nicely: "DRUNK TEENAGERS! Let's start a fight / Out gettin' wasted on a Saturday night!" reveling in the glory of it all. It's beautifully archetypal, tells you exactly what sort of story you're getting. A celebration of the past, for all its dumb parties and heartbreak, a time jsut before you learn you're not invincible.

After another snippet, the Abbey Road-like title track that contains the first indication of how the story goes, "Later on, I see you talking to the beauty / I'm right beside her but you're lookin' right through me." "Fashionable People" then arrives as a character study, a sarcastic appraisal of the kids who have the time and freedom to get loaded in the woods. "The dancers need a dancefloor / The swingers gotta swing, / Fashionable people / Doing questionable things." It and "Penny For Your Thoughts" give us these fragments of narrative but also function well as songs in their own rights with singalong choruses and catchy hooks. Joel Plaskett is one of the single most exceptional songwriters my country has ever produced, because all through this album, and even in individual songs like these, there are so many diverse elements, instruments, verse-chorus structures, that are being put in place, and he pulls the strings perfectly. By the end of these songs, we feel as attached to the characters as they do to each other, even though we aren't watching a movie or reading a book.

The chugging, sinewy, riff-driven "Snowed In/Cruisin'" follows, into the first of three emotional climaxes on the album, the astounding "Face Of The Earth." I would like to break from protocol and define my love for this song by examining what it is not: a wistful, sighing lament, a quiet moan. No, it is as furious and frustrated and pissed-off as anything off Pinkerton. On the page (and in various acoustic versions I've heard,) you could play it low-key, but the Emergency goes balls-out here and makes it a knockout. there's something so defiant about the way the music drops out in the "Rolling thunder" refrain that heightens the tension, the drama, the tragedy. The chorus features guitars the fall like light rain and drums that kick like distant storms. It climaxes with the amazing protest chant "TEARS ROLL DOWN / THE FACE OF THE EARTH! / TEARS ROLL DOWN / THE FACE OF THE EARTH!" where our teenage protagonist demands the planet itself acknowledge his suffering. That shit is straight up Lear. Yes, somehow I've managed to work two completely separate Shakespeare allusions into this review. 'Bout time that degree starts earning its way. It's one of those times in music when you just fucking... feel it.

The next track, "The Glorious Life," is a bit more of a narrative weight-bearer than a song, but it leads into the second climactic moment, the tremendously-worded fuck off, "Nothing More To Say," an anthem of the cold shoulder. "Don't call me up when you figure it out / I got nothin' more to say to you / You had your chance when the truth came out / I got nothin' more to say to you." It's just pure, unadulterated "Fuck this shit!" And while he hammers bitterly against the guitars, the piano underneath the track begs forgiveness, because there's something so sweet and blameless about those ivories.

But for all that slamming of the door, there's another way through, with the bridge-mending "Chinatown/For The Record," which speaks to the power of music to see into the hearts of others, and "The Instrumental," which carries all the power of any other song without the need for words. The amazing thing about music is that pure feeling of feeling without being told in language. It does contain an important spoken-word segment and a few rhyming couplets at the end, but the powerful bit is the lyricless jam.

That brings us where we came in. The third and final peak of the album, the excellent "Soundtrack for the Night," whose opening lines we previously heard as the "Introduction," giving us that emotional resolution, that sense of full-circle. It also contains the best rock and roll usage of castanets ever but that's beside the point. The song absolutely soars, and swoops in for a delicate landing in that last verse that turns the intro on its ear and tells us it wasn't really about the girl as much as it was about the friends.

The album actually has its own "Her Majesty" moment, after a lengthy pause, an "Outroduction" pulls us back out of the narrative, offering a weirdly skewed vantage point and telling a strange anecdote about the time Dave Boyd ran for school president. To me, I guess, it's a weird reminder that no matter how important your problems seem to you, there's a whole world going on around you at the same time.

There's so much to say about this album. It has that perfect blend of personal and universal that all great music must, with the oddly detailed songwriting and very specific song structure blending with timeless themes of heartache and lost friendships, deception and betrayal and in the end, forgiveness. It's ornate and decorated with accessories because that's the way we view the past, but Plaskett never forgets that the good old days never really were that good.

Here is one of the greatest albums of our decade. It doesn't struggle to wrench emotion out of cliches, and it doesn't sentimentalize and it doesn't deny feeling in order to seem cool. Wisely, it finds that sweet spot to signify just enough of its own meaning and let you feel it for yourself. I often have emotional responses to music, but Ashtray Rock is the one, probably the only one, that gets me every time. I swear, every fucking time. That's what's so great about music, like a memory, it allows you to revisit those same feelings over and over, and it's so rewarding, when it's drawn so well as this one, that brings it all out and lets it all go. There will always be a place for this album.

Buy this album from iTunes now!