[review 2007: odds and ends]

Sometimes you can write entire screeds about an album. And sometimes you can barely write a sentence. For whatever reason, here’s some of the albums this year that had me fresh out of new perspectives.

Joel Plaskett Emergency - Ashtray Rock. Plaskett applies his many talents to a concept that’s obviously close to his heart (though apparently fictional): two East Coast teenagers in a band, ripped apart by their competing affections for a girl. Unfortunately, meeting the needs of the narrative requires Plaskett to up the filler quotient, but “Fashionable People” and the accompanying video are damned near irresistible, “Face of the Earth” and “Nothing More to Say” are deliciously melodramatic, and “The Instrumental” is surprisingly satisfying for an interstitial. If the album had a couple more of Plaskett’s trademark rockers it’d be an even better album.