CARTOONS
(released on Capitol in October 1998)
The relationship between Janet Kieran and Nick Parker was already strained by the time ON SUCH A NIGHT was released, a fact reflected in the album's lyrics, but it fell apart entirely by the end of 1996. The pair was used to a relationship of this nature and so was able to continue working together regularly -- "You wouldn't know there was any trouble," Jay Kay Ray has said -- but this time around it hit Nick Parker especially hard. Years later he explained that he had intended ON SUCH A NIGHT as his gift to her and she had felt that the lyrics were much too personal. When people in the press started speculating about the subject matter's relation to the couple, Janet receded into privacy for a time and stopped interacting in any unprofessional capacity with Nick. As he began work on the next Plaastik album, he was devastated. ON SUCH A NIGHT was the most popular, celebrated thing he'd ever done with the band and he was now under immense pressure because he'd done it with very little input from the rest of the band ("and we were fine with that," says Jeff, "but it was hard on him"). In a 1997 interview he claimed the next Plaastik album would be a drastic change of pace -- hadn't they all been? -- and would follow in the direction not of, say, "Swim" and "Lantern," but "Sick But Kind" and "Best New Thing."
With the rest of the band's blessing, he began to write the lyrics and music on his own for what would be the first Plaastik album with no compositions from any other band members. "I think we'd all had enough of the way we worked in the early '90s," Janet says, "and we enjoyed the approach used on the '96 record so we figured we'd give it another shot." Nick couldn't seem to get anywhere, though. Jeff: "He kept calling me up and saying, 'I've only written one song, and we can't use it because it's called "Shit Shit Shit Shit."'" Finally, against his better judgment, in late 1997 Nick ripped up his work so far and started over, this time writing extensively about things that were on his mind: his relationship with Janet, recent "deaths in the family," and a reevaluation and reawakening of childhood memories.
The others loved the new songs, but they had some reservations about a few of the choices he was making, most notably the robot-voice funk covers of two Prince songs that he'd made on his computer with ACID and that he insisted would be on the album. He also wanted a "big-name producer" because "I wanted to get somebody who would fuck it all up and end up with something different than what I imagined."
What this meant, according to Janet, was that "he wasn't happy with the stuff he'd written. I don't think he was happy, period." Eventually, he sold most of the band on the idea of taking the backseat creatively to a big-name producer. What they didn't expect was the magnitude of the personality he would end up hiring.
"I met Phil Spector toward the beginning of my career," Nick has said, "and I always wanted to work with him." Spector emerged from recluse status to join the band in the studio, where he "barked orders like an army drill sergeant, called Jay a nigger, added strings and horns to everything, and never kept a single song at its original speed." Jay defends the producer: "I actually enjoyed working with him; he was a bit weird, but I liked what he did with the record." The band was indeed quite proud of the result, mainly because, as promised, it was nothing like what they had imagined. The sessions had been quick and painless and uneventful, "the way recording sessions ought to be and never are." Nick was overjoyed at being able to "listen to one of our albums and having it seem so fresh, without feeling like I know every note." So they were devastated when the record was released to commercial ambivalence (though it was a top-ten success) and critical scorn.
Critics tended to see the oddly-titled CARTOONS as a "near-miss," questioning the inclusion of throwaways like "I Sold My Soul to the Barking Policeman," the sequening logic, the lack of originality in several songs which unapologetically lifted lyrics from other sources, and of course the two inexplicable Prince covers, side by side on the tracklist. Fans were far less kind, denouncing the entire project immediately; the only track that was generally well-liked was the first single, "We Were." The others were considered either too much like the 'ska revival' material popular at the time -- lots of quick tempos and horns -- or too similar to songs off ON SUCH A NIGHT. A few fans are clueless as to why the album is so universally hated; it still has yet to find its audience.
Plaastik didn't lose much credibility, though; they'd just enjoyed major success with a hit R.E.M. cover for a tribute album -- but this didn't bode well for their future. It was wondered if perhaps their sound had become an anachronism in the era of dwindling sales for alt-rock. However, Phil Spector, for his part, enjoyed the experience and loved working with Nick Parker -- "a very bright young man" -- and even praised the amateurish Prince covers. And within a month of the album's release, Janet Kieran and Nick Parker were engaged. "So," says Jooce, "I don't think it was such a bad record."
tracklist:
1. Draw
2. Inside
3. Last Time
4. Rental (single 2)
5. When I Was a Boy
6. So Bright
7. I Thought I Loved You (Once Upon a Time) (single 3)
8. We Were (single 1)
9. Why Did You Do This to Me?
10. Kiss
11. Seven
12. Park
13. Once Again
14. I Sold My Soul to the Barking Policeman
Rockville b-sides
(Don't Go Back To) Rockville
Last Time
Draw
Inside
We Were b-sides
We Were [single version]
54-40 Galileo
Chase It/Erase It
Rental b-sides
Bizzy
Words of Comfort
I Thought I Loved You b-sides
Say What You want
Come Together