Emergencys, False Alarms, Shipwrecks, Castaways, Fragile Creatures, Special Features, Demons and Demonstrations

The Gift to a Veteran Fan

     

This collection is no invitation into Emergency fandom... it's for those of us who were already at the party. Plaskett's ability to tell a story, with a rock and roll album, is exemplified (maybe accidentally, for all we know) this time, in that the scattered progression he gives us, with EMERGENCY'S, speaks to his own growth. From the hollow-cylindrical tin of the already Thrush-Hermitty-enough Come On Teacher, to the mature On the Rail, this record reminds Plaskett fans of the one thing none of his records have allowed to forget: He grew up here, and here, he continues to grow. Also littered with many, often forgotton, gems such as The Hurt's All Gone, this LP gives second chances to all of the tunes that have been excluded, in the last ten years, for no reason other than the mundane "rules" of Jukebox Radio.

Another treat is the exposure of bones beneath the flesh of such concept ballad's like Ashtray Rock's Nothing More to Say, and the grungily honest-sounding Drunk Teenagers that we'd be crazy not to add to our Shuffles. True Patriot Love gave me an audient sense of rawness, only duplicated when I'm stage-side. The comically long title of JPE's latest isn't gratuitous, in the least, and speaks only to the reflective and (hopefully) durable career, we've seen so far. I think I speak for all the youthfull screams, still bouncing around Gottigen, when I say, "Great. What's next?"