If it’s taken you this long to fully digest Joel Plaskett’s latest offering, you’d be excused. 44 is Plaskett’s most ambitious project to date, a collection of four full albums released just before his 45th birthday – Carried Away, Just Passing Through, If There’s Another Road, and The Window Inn. The project serves as a spiritual successor to Three, a similar release by Plaskett in 2009 which consisted of three albums.
44 was recorded over the span of four years with over 30 collaborators. These include members from his own band The Emergency, as well as various Canadian musicians. Mo Kenney, members of Sloan and Local Rabbits, Al Tuck, Rose Cousins, Charlotte Cornfield – even his own son, Xianing, makes an appearance. The project features covers of Joni Mitchell, Lucinda Williams, Dennis Ellsworth, and even his own previous band, Thrush Hermit. To list every collaborator would take just as long as listening to this mammoth of a collection. Plaskett also found himself in many locations during the recording process. From Nova Scotia, to Toronto, to Memphis, to Nashville – this record has its roots in all corners of North America.
All of this variation reflects itself in the album’s sound. Plaskett changes up his sound through each installment, which is a welcome decision. 44 tracks painted with the same brush would get old for anybody, no matter how prolific the artist. While there are definitely forgettable tracks, it’s more due to the sheer volume of songs to contend with and not monotony.
Plaskett avoids that stagnation by not settling on one sound for too long. Carried Away is a chill, folky beginning, while Just Passing Through kicks things up a notch with some grittier, high energy tracks. The Window Inn even has some more experimental tracks that feel like an apt reward for making the commitment to listen for that long.
Plaskett often makes good use of transitions between songs, and this is most apparent and effective on Carried Away. Plaskett touches on moments and places in time, with travel being a consistent theme. “Highland Heart”, “Complicated Love”, “Memory Complete Me” – these songs have no definitive beginning or end. They melt one into the other, creating the illusion of one giant song. It feels like we’re constantly being spirited from one location to the next, with very few pit stops.
Just Passing Through feels much more personal than the other volumes. The songs are loaded with personal anecdotes and stories. If 44 is a reflection of Plaskett’s life, Just Passing Through serves as the return to glory days. Plaskett pays tribute to his former bandmate on “Tim”, while “Wizard of Taz” and “Brand New & Brokenhearted” are love letters to his hometown of Halifax. There are a lot of fun flourishes and vocal deliveries that lend themselves well to the youthful environment many of these memories are rooted in. Despite this, there’s a clear lack of permanence – a feeling of returning to a once-beloved place that is, in some ways, unrecognizable.
If There’s Another Road is where Plaskett houses his more introspective songs. While the entire project is an exercise in the slow, sometimes painful process of self-reflection, it presents itself most clearly on this particular album. The volume ranges from soft to deafening, but the slow pace is what keeps things on a low simmer. Though there are several covers throughout the four albums, his raw rendition of “I Lost It” by Lucinda Williams is a particular standout here. The fuzzy, distorted guitar fades into “Just Because”, easily the heaviest track across all four albums.
It’s the common threads of Plaskett’s distinct voice, signature lyrical style, and encompassing themes that give this project a sense of overall cohesion. Plaskett is constantly returning or alluding to themes or ideas he’s already touched on in the album. The opening (and title) track of Just Passing Through makes reference to “Catch 22”, the closer of the album. So does the haunting “Ps & Qs”. There are also several allusions to “dreamland”. It’s referenced in “Blowing A Kiss”, as well as several songs on The Window Inn. Plaskett’s cover of “The Bottom” by Dennis Ellsworth even has him changing “dream time” to “dreamland” in the lyrics. These feel like stepping stones to the album’s final destination.
And what a final destination it is. The second half of The Window Inn is home to some of the most interesting tracks of the whole collection. The psychedelic “Rock Paper Scissors Meteor” features Plaskett’s son, with the lyrics caught between a fun game between the two of them and an existential crisis. “Melt The Universe With Brotherly Love” is a prelude to that, with gospel harmonies and sensibilities.
While most of 44 serves as a reflection of Plaskett’s life, it’s these final tracks that feel like a result of that life he’s lived. With The Window Inn, Plaskett has arrived at a personal destination, aided by the wisdom of the experiences he’s lived through. Though “A Benefit 4 Dreamland” offers a fitting conclusion for the project, the very nature of 44 doesn’t lend itself to a conclusion. Plaskett’s journey is far from over, meaning we’ll have to stick around and see where it takes him next.