CHILD
(released on Capitol in October 2004)
The SCIENCE tour was a draining experience for Plaastik, one that nearly broke them up and left them reeling and stuck at a stalemate for nearly a year. When recording sessions for their next album finally began in earnest in late 2002 and officially in Febuary 2003, tensions were mounting. Christina Singleton began to take over the production responsibilities completely, while the rest of the band tried to slip their own material through the narrow crevice she left. Nick Parker and Janet Kieran both ended up holding off on presenting their best new material, as they had on SCIENCE, worried about the mistreatment it would receive in the studio (it would finally be released in less than orthodox form on LOVE).
By June of 2003, the band was beginning to mount itself against Tina, who was essentially producing her own version of the next record. The final tracklist of CHILD contains only three songs that were completed by this point. Parker and the other band members presented Tina with an ultimatum: she would allow them to hear the album as it now stood, and if it was not to the band's satisfaction, she would give up her leadership at the mixing board. "We recognize now," Kieran later said, "the importance of having an outsider present. We thought we would finally go past that, but it looks like it was a bad idea." The version of the album she offered was eccentric and tiresome, much like the last three Plaastik albums. It had been a conscious decision on the part of the band to try and move away from their half-hearted experimentation of recent years, but Singleton was not interested in this approach. The acetate was rejected and she stormed out, thus becoming the first person to permanently leave Plaastik (though she was not, as too many newspapers reported, an original member).
Singleton had by the late '90s become less a sideman and more a driving creative voice in the band, so her departure was a blow, but it turned out to be a cleansing one. The band chose, surprisingly, not to go on hiatus after losing Tina, instead holding meetings about the specific intention behind the record. Most of the same songs that had already been intended for the album were kept, but the sound and arrangements became vastly different. Parker looked into the back catalog and presented "We Were," by many fans' accounts the last classic song the band had released to that point, and chose it as a model to follow for the pending album.
Even after control over the material was left to Nick, the process was not entirely smooth. The recording sessions were finished in October; two months later, Parker prepared a master of the album but destroyed it before it reached Capitol. Millions of dollars were drained on the process, a lot of it wasted in the early months with Tina and even more at the mixing board by Nick after everyone else had gone home. Nick called the band together for additional sessions in the spring of 2004, by which point it had been announced by Capitol as "delayed indefinitely." In May of 2004, things began to look brighter; the tracklist was finalized around that time, Nick completed a mix that pleased him as well as the others in the band, and the new material being toyed with (see LOVE) was dropped for future tinkering. Delays were still rampant. For most of the summer, Singleton -- who remained a consultant (with veto power) for this, her last album with Plaastik, despite her departure a year before -- and Parker were engaged in hot debate over the inclusion of certain tracks. Tina refused to allow "Look (Time)" to be included on the album unless Parker used her preferred abrasive arrangement of the song rather than the more restrained version, and disagreements apparently existed over various other tracks as well. It is not known whether Nick won all of these battles, but the war ended peacefully, with Tina contribution at the eleventh hour a vocal to the track "Scarlett" (and later even volunteering to appear in the video). However, this was apparently to be Tina's last association with Plaastik.
A cautious and very conscious stab at a "return to form," CHILD -- a loose concept album about the pains of childhood and lovesickness -- received warm and tentative praise from critics and fans on release in October 2004. Determined to regain their audience, Plaastik even embarked on a tiny promotional tour, their first such event since 1981; unfortunately, only a small portion of the tour became a reality, with the remainder of the dates pushed back continually due to a glut of additional projects, unexpected turns, and infighting. Barely a year old at this writing, CHILD now smacks of opportunities missed, the optimistic excitement of a new chapter now whittled down to a teardrop. (Despite opening at #3, it barely went gold and plummeted down the charts rapidly.) Plaastik have released a fine record with CHILD, but many contend they have proven the adage that you can't go home again.
(Note: the album cover folds out to reveal this --)
tracklist:
1. Make
2. Walking Distance (single 1)
3. Tired
4. Scarlett (single 3)
5. Me
6. Look (Time)
7. Lost
8. The Rooms
9. My Friend
10. Little
11. Boy + Girl?
12. My Field
13. Ow (single 2)
14. Did She Know What I Felt?
Walking Distance b-sides
Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey
Get Down with This
Ow b-sides
Ow [single version]
Sex
On the Telly
Scarlett b-sides
Holding Back the Years
This I Promise You