These reviews originally appeared at allenlulu.com
Elvis Costello – My Aim is True – 1977
When I first read that Clover, a band that would count among its members American faux-soul, semi rocker Huey Lewis, was the backing group on Elvis Costello’s debut record, My Aim is True, I thought it sounded ridiculous. From my peripheral understanding of Elvis’ work surely that would be not just out of the right musical idiom but a step down.
The Elvis I knew is the geek glasses wearing, awkward footed nerd on the cover with the checkerboard background. He was on Stiff records. He was a pinnacle leader of New Wave. Wasn’t he?
And then I listened to Aim in its entirety.
The 50s soul ethos is in full swing on this record. Many of these songs could be recorded by any number of trash can crooners or R&B groups (not bands, think the Pips or the Temptations).
In a way the record owes a lot to backward thinking storytellers like Bruce Springsteen. The heavy swinging, doo wop rocking of the E-Street band is aped perfectly by the backing band. So, when I think back to seeing Costello perform with Bruce at a Hall of Fame event it no longer seems incongruous. In fact, they go hand in hand. In many ways Costello was, at least at first, the British Bruce. But more poppy. Where The Boomtown Rats would fail, Costello would succeed. The Rats being just too quirky and less able to write pop songs. Costello is a pop songsmith of the highest order. Like Bruce. And he’s working class. Like Bruce.
Believe it.
But, like many of his countrymates Elvis appropriated an almost punk aesthetic to get his record deal and get his records sold. Joe Jackson did it on the impeccably New Wave Look Sharp. Gary Numan did it on his punk offering Tubeway Army. It would be easily to look at this record and this dude and think it’s something new. Hell his name is some unholy poaching of the King and, what, the world’s first beta infantile beta male comic?
And opening with the hyper “Welcome to the Working Week” is also a deception. The record settles in after that with the more soulful offerings of “No Dancing” and the impeccable “Alison”. It doesn’t really get spunky again until “Mystery Dance”, as it keeps that one toe in that modern vernacular.
(I would love love LOVE to hear the late Teddy Pendergrass of someone like that attempt Alison. It would be sublime)
None of this is to remotely suggest that My Aim is True isn’t brilliant. It is. “Pay it Back”, “Less Than Zero”, “Red Shoes”, “Sneaky Feelings”, each of them tastier than the last. But only “I’m not Angry” really tries out the red and black of New Wave.
It’s just that My Aim is True is NOT what would have expected looking at that cover. Listening to that opening track.
But it’s pretty damned great.
Grade: A+
Aside: Welcome to the Working Week, Alison, Red Shoes, Less Than Zero, Watching the Detectives, Miracle Man
BlindSide: Sneaky Feelings, Pay it Back, I’m Not Angry
DownSide: Are you kidding?
Elvis Costello – This Year’s Model – 1978
I love the 70s for music. Bands would just churn out record after record. Kiss, Queen, Costello, it’s like they were so inspired and excited and frenetic that they just had to get it all out. Sure, there were guys like Bruce who could labor a few years between records, whether it be perfectionism or legal issues, but, for the most part, there was just so much music being funneled out to the world in the mid-70s that I imagine it was almost impossible to keep up with some of it.
What it meant, though, was this: a scant year after his monster debut Elvis Costello got together with Steve Nieve and the rest of the Attractions and pumped out another classic.
I recall the posters for This Year’s Model in the mall at the record shops. I was 13 and I though, “waitamminit, didn’t he JUST put out a record?” But I was too busy buying Bay City Rollers records to pay much attention.
I’m glad I waited. Brilliance is so much sweeter when it’s discovered late, like unearthing buried treasure.
The soul stylings of the first record are toned way down. The Attractions aren’t Clover. They don’t swing. They rock. They can kill. They take no prisoners. “On the Beat” proves that. That organ only suggests Danny Federici now. It’s part of a rock and roll attack. And that attack is relentless. The classics “Pump it Up” and the devastatingly punk “Radio Radio” are classic rock staples, forebears of the New Wave revolution but better than anything that would come.
Model is better than Aim, if that’s even possible. Partially its because of The Attractions. Partially it’s because the former was originally a demo of songs to be recorded by Dave Edmunds.
Mainly it’s because Elvis is suddenly much more confident than before. He was a fine front man on the last record but here he’s imbued with a sense of purpose. Just listen to “Little Triggers” and you will hear a balladeer who takes the crooner of “Alison” out and beats him to a pulp.
And it’s, basically, a punk record. At the time punk was about attitude, stripping down to the basics, taking the piss out of someone (which this record does in spades) and playing with, of all things, reggae (Living in Paradise). The punks in the 70s London were listening to and playing a LOT of dub. Reggae making its way onto Clash Records as well as a host of others. It’s not surprising to hear that sound here. And like a lot of punks, it flavors the sound, doesn’t dominate the track. The way the arpeggiated guitar on X’s Adult Books sounded. Punk all the way.
The model on This Year’s Model isn’t Elvis. Look at that cover. If his “Aim” was “True” last year, he has his sights on us. And his accuracy is pinpoint.
Grade: A+
Aside: Pump it Up, Radio Radio, I Don’t Want to Go To Chelsea
BlindSide: The Beat, No Action, Little Triggers, You Belong to Me, Lipstick Vogue
Elvis Costello – Armed Forces – 1979
Armed Forces is defined, for me, by “Green Shirt”. Spare. Sparse. That snare. That pulsing bass. The singer’s piercing indictment. You can’t put a song like this on a record unless you are sure you can pull it off. It could so easily devolve into parody.
It doesn’t.
The other definition of Armed Forces boldness? (Screw off, DeRogatis) The cover. Where’s Elvis? He’s right there, you know. He’s the leader of a thundering pack of elephants determined to run you over roughshod.
“One less white nigger”?? Who comes up with that incendiary and elegantly poignant lyric? Who is this guy?
“Oliver’s Army” & “Accidents Will Happen” & “Sunday Best” are the big songs you know. But, by no means are they the best. That slot is reserved for the genius of the aforementioned “Green Shirt” and “Senior Service”. (Okay, those hits are brilliant as well) Even when the album seems that it’s going to weigh itself down in self-importance (Party Girl) it is immediately redeemed by the buoyant “Busy Bodies”.
Costello and The Attractions know what they’re doing by now. They’ve got it figured out. Elvis is Cole Porter and they are the most well oiled backing band rock has ever produced (hyperbole intended). But, instead of becoming rote and by the numbers, Armed Forces crushes everything in it’s path on it’s way to being his 3rd classic in a row.
I could do without the trite and easily rendered “Moods for Moderns” but, at this point that’s nitpicking and beisdes, “Little Hitlers” more than makes up for it.
Elvis has me and I’m his to lose.
Grade: A
A-Side: Accidents Will Happen, Oliver’s Army, Sunday Best
BlindSide: Green Shirt, Senior Service. Little Hitlers, Good Squad
DownSide: Moods for Moderns
Elvis Costello – Get Happy – 1980
Every Listening Post has the inevitable moment when I find myself having to sit down and listen with nothing else to do. By that I mean I often listen to 3 records in a row while traveling (God love Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones!) Or when I have downtime on the set. Or at the gym on the elliptical. Places where I can just absorb the album in it’s entirety. As a whole.
And then there are times like these. When I am in a condo in downtown Vancouver. No distractions. And I have an hour before they are gonna pick me up for work. What better time than now to liveblog the one album in Costello’s oeuvre that I have been aware of but never heard? I remember there was a kid named Jason where I summered in Maine. Good looking kid. Tall. He inherited like 100K when someone died. Can’t remember who. I remember 3 things about him:
1.He blew his money on some failed pizza joint.
2.He slept with the girl I had a crush on.
3.He had a cassette copy of Get Happy and talked about how great it was.
No surprise that I never gave it a listen.
Here we go.
1. Love for Tender – That 60s soul sound is back. Only this time it sounds more like the Jam than The Temptations. Unmemorable.
2.Opportunity – Where are we, the boardwalk in Atlantic City? Cute, but I’ve been here before.
3.The Imposter – Nieve has too much to do on this record. Couple that with an apparent lack of original thoughts and this is shaping up to be much ado about nothing.
4.Secondary Modern – We are deep into the detroit-wannabe sound now. It’s not bad, but I’m not finding anything to grab onto. He’s not that great a singer, that’s what I’m coming to learn.
5.King Horse – The first real sign of life on the record. Catchy, abrasive, energetic. Whew. I was beginning to wonder what all the hoopla is about.
6.Possession – Fine. By now I know that I will probably never need to hear this album again.
7.Man Called Uncle – You know what I am hearing? Too much bass. A the hint of too much echo. This is the cusp of the era of reaching back to the 60s (Phil Collins’ You Can’t Hurry Love cover, everything by Paul Weller…). But it’s mixed with an ear to Phil Spector and that sound gets tired after a while.
The best thing about these songs is most of them are short. They might be undeveloped but they don’t stick around too long to be a pain.
8.Clowntime is Over – A midtempo tune that Declan could write in his sleep. Either he is done mining the pre-label deal treasure trove of songs and he’s lost the ability to come up with something fresh or he’s run out of things to talk about.
9.New Amsterdam – Here’s a classic. And actually it’s not that, as I feared it might be, something I like because I’ve heard it since I had that green collection 20 years ago. No, it’s actually a good song. Sounds like something that would have appeared on Imperial Bedroom a few years later.
10.Hi Fidelity – Finding his footing halfway through the record, this is the song that could be looked at as the basis of Punch the Clock (one of my favorite records)
11.I Can’t Stand Up for Falling – The first real retro success on this spinner. This is his “What’s so Funny ’bout Peace, love and Understanding?” A dynamite track. Why did the best songs come so late in the proceedings?
12.Black & White World – And we’re back to being tired and uninspired.
13.Five Gears in Reverse – A muscle car of a song. The best surprise cut.
14.B Movie – Oh, hey, I get it. You dig that bass playing, E. That doesn’t mean we all want to hear it.
15.Motel Matches – One of those melancholy, reminiscent ballads that Elvis does so well. Sounds just this side of Billy Joel.
16.Human Touch – This should have been a B-side. The whole record sounds like it was recorded as a soundtrack for a carnival soundtrack that never happened.
17.Beaten to the Punch – Is it over?
You might get the impression that I hate Get Happy. I don’t. But I don’t think it’s a very inspired record. The previous albums seem like Elvis came in with songs written and the band interpreted them and gave them life. On this one he seems to be writing to the bands’ strengths. Or it was written in the studio. Either way, it’s not a very inspired record for me. I will never listen to it again.
18.Temptation – I’ve heard Sam & Dave. For that matter, I’ve heard the Blues Brothers. I don’t need this.
19.I Stand Accused – Fine. The end is in sight.
20.Riot Act – If you made it this far, kudos. This is indulgent, over produced and tired.
Grade: C-
A-Side: New Amsterdam, Hi Fidelity
BlindSide: King Horse, Five Girls in Reverse
DownSide: Nothing is awful. But compared to the past 4 records, it just can’t stand up.
Elvis Costello – Trust – 1981
Hi, Angry Elvis. Welcome back, we missed you.
Trust is probably most remembered for the song “Clubland”, a Costello classic, but for my money it’s more about the next track, “Lover’s Walk” and the fierce “White Knuckles”.
It seems like (and upon researching, turns out I’m pretty dead on here) that this is an attempt to combine the R&B of Get Happy and the songwriting of the previous records. It works. The bass is back where it belongs, not up front, detracting from everything else. And the organ is minimalized. It’s there, but it’s not distracting.
It’s an aggressive powerhouse set of songs. Focused and intense yet it finds the room to swing (“Luxembourg”). There’s some experimentation like “New Lace Sleeves” which is a harbinger of “Beyond Belief” from Imperial Bedroom. “Shot with His Own Gun” features Nieve’s piano work and finds Costello channeling some chanteuse. Does it work? Not entirely but it doesn’t fail and it’s a welcome respite from the all band, precision clockwork sound that I have become used to.
Around this time Elvis had also stepped into the producer shoes, working on Squeeze’s East Side Story (A classic in its own right) so it’s no surprise but wonderful when Glenn Tilbrook turns up as a guest vocalist duetting on “From a Whisper to a Scream”.
“White Knuckles” sounds like an Andy Partridge tune and it’s also the angriest Elvis has ever sounded. “White knuckles on black and blue skin, you didn’t mean to hit her but she kept laughing….” Wow, E. You’re one pissed dude.
The only time the album really fails is in that last track, “Big Sister’s Clothes” a track that producer Nick Lowe distanced himself on the liner notes, making a point to state that he was “not responsible” for it. (Thanks, Wikipedia, for the info) It’s a bad track.
Trust is a delightful return to form.
Grade: A
A-Side: Clubland, Watch Your Step
BlindSide: Lover’s Walk, White Knuckles, Strict Time, Fish n Chip Paper
DownSide: Big Sister’s Clothes
Elvis Costello – Almost Blue – 1981
I remember reading about this album in the various mags and zines in 81. It was everywhere. Not because it was the 6th Elvis record in as many years. No, that was to be expected. In fact, Costello had another record released that year; Trust.
Almost Blue was talked about because….it was Costello’s Country album.
Country.
The nerdy, bespectacled, new wave posing, English purveyor of soul and rock and tight 2-3 minute ditties was putting out a country album.
Crazy.
Well, not so, really, when you think about it.
First off, Get Happy, the last record was obviously playing around in a traditionally American idiom; Motown. Secondly, Costello’s inner circle of producers and players included Nick Lowe who had never shied away from his adoration for Americana. And Dave Edmunds was on the cutting edge of the burgeoning rockabilly movement. The two of them put together the supergroup, Rockpile, which was, if anything, a band that did not hesitate in showing it’s love for the form. Even Squeeze was playing with in the style (Labeled with Love).
And Elvis was, at the time, if anything, a power pop writer. More than he was New Wave and especially punk.
Country songs can be great, you know? They follow a formula, verse, chorus, verse…..and they have heart. A lot of heart. They usually play in the same sandbox as rock and soul: love songs, but they also specialize in despair and heartache.
That’s all right up Elvis’ alley.
Songs like “A Good Year for the Roses” fit perfectly. “Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down” and “Sittin’ and Thinkin’” both feature alcohol prominently. And the English drunks have nothing on American drunks.
Some of it drags. “Too Far Gone” is your requisite lamentation but I can’t help hearing Willie Nelson’s voice. This is so his style. He would do it so much better. And the out of left field “Honey Hush” which owes more to “Wooly Bully” and dance hall blues than it does the the theme of the album.
This record is filled with covers, songs written by some great C&W songsmiths:
Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Johnny Mullins, two by Gram Parsons and more. It’s a Country & Western covers album but it’s a much more accessible album than Get Happy. And a lot of fun.
I don’t know what all the fuss was about.
Grade: B-
A-Side: A Good Year for the Roses, Why Don’t You Love Me
BlindSide: I’m Your Toy, Sittin’ and Thinkin’, The Color of the Blues
DownSide: Too Far Gone, Honey Hush
Elvis Costello – Imperial Bedroom – 1982
It was the summer of 1982. Peter Daher, my best friend and fellow non-Mainer, found ourselves with some cash after pay day and, as was our wont, we found ourselves at the record store.
Peter was transfixed by the coolness of The Stray Cats which I poo poo’ed in favor of an album whose posters put forth the hyperbole that Costello was a new Cole Porter. Because nothing says ROCK like Cole Porter (Or was it Gershwin, I can never remember…)
I guess I never really had my finger on any pulse of what was gonna be popular.
So, I bought Imperial Bedroom. I almost never made it past the first track.
Not because it was bad. Because it was…amazing.
“Beyond Belief” was my life. I was occyping the ramshackle apartment next to my parents’. I had my own kitchen and would find myself staying up all night on Sundays reading the New York Times Arts & leisure section deep into the morning. I would amble in at 4 AM from all night sessions of “Strat-o-matic baseball” with George while we watched Peter Ivers’ New Wave Theater.
I was sitting outside of the world and I thought I was in it. I was in love with someone who had no idea, I think, how consuming that adoration was. Didn’t matter. I was more in love with the idea of that person. I barely knew her.
I found myself alone even though there were, it turned out, plenty of girls who liked me. I was just too stupid and obsessed to notice.
High School was done and I was about to start college. I started smoking. (Drum. I rolled my own) I had listening parties of Sandinista and all night drink binges. I tried coke. I smoked pot. I tried to rekindle 4 year old and long forgotten romances. I was about to change.
And Imperial Bedroom was the soundtrack to this mess of a summer in ’82.
It’s not fair to go song by song through the album. Because it is, quite simply, one of the best of not just–
Wait…”The Long Honeymoon” with it’s european, french quarter sound has just come on. I’ll be back in a sec. This song kills me.
Okay. Where was I? One of the best of not just Elvis’ career but of the 80s. Perhaps it’s one of the best albums of the Rock Era.
Elvis grew up. He’s older. Divorced. Chagrined. Praised (some amazing albums). Detracted (for using some seriously racist comments while on tour). He’s gone through drugs and alcohol. But he was ready to prove to everyone just why he mattered.
Imperial Bedroom is about failed marriages, busted romances, bad decisions, cuckolded lovers and all that goes with that. It’s an epic and–
Shit. Hang on. “Man Out of Time” is on. With that deceptive hard rocking intro that slides into epic tragedy. Gimme a sec. Man, I wish I had a smoke…
That was great. Fuck. “Almost Blue” is on. It’s hard to write about an album that I love so much while I’m hearing it again for the first time in almost 18 years.
The Elvis crooner that more often than not comes across as a pale imitation of balladeers is in full throated brilliance here, on the superb “Almost Blue” and the album closer “Town Cryer”.
There’s a little latter day George Martin Beatles on songs like “…and in Every Home”, replete with horns and strings, it would have made the Fab Four proud. Lennon would have loved it. And “You Little Fool” which owes as much to the Lads.
There’s a little slippage here and there. “Kid About It” is annoying and over produced. And the album is a little bloated.
But tumescent brilliance is always welcome.
In the end, my choice that day at that record shop 28 years ago was the right one.
Grade A+
A Side: Beyond Belief, The Long Honeymoon, Man Out of Time
BlindSide: Almost Blue, …and in Every Home, Human Hands, Pidgin English, You Little Fool
DownSide: Kid About It
Elvis Costello – Punch the Clock – 1983
Another year, another Elvis collection. If Imperial Bedroom showed, once and for all, that Elvis was a formidable songwriter, Punch the Clock was to be the proof that he could get back on the charts. It almost worked.
Some of it is amazing. Some misses the mark.
I haven’t heard it since I was in college. I only had it on cassette. And I recall only digging a couple songs. But, this was it for me. After Punch I wouldn’t buy another Elvis record. I would borrow one here, find one left behind there, listen to a stream but I couldn’t bring myself to actually buy one. I have no idea why. Maybe I had to study. More likely I had moved on to bands like Violent Femmes and studying. (Ha!)
Punch the Clock makes a left turn (slightly) from the maturity shown on Bedroom. For one thing, there’s no Picasso on the cover. The “candid” pic of cap-wearing Elvis is poor at best. He looks surprised that anyone with a camera is even there. It harkens to U2s October with much of its real estate taken up by monochrome with inset.
And the songs are tinged more with retro soul than before. Like Joe Jackson around the same time on Body and Soul, (And Ray Davies around this time as well) and Paul Weller’s Style Council, Elvis is reaching into and mining a sound that is almost forgotten in the states. It would come back in full at this time, horns abounding, but Elvis was one of the first to bring it back.
I think it goes without saying that I like Costello when he’s either rocking or mining Beatles territory. It fits him. I even prefer the C&W of Almost Blue to the soul stylings of, say, Get Happy.
But he gets a lot of it right on Punch.
“Let Them All Talk” is about as exciting and swinging tune that Costello has ever penned. Almost begging you on to the dance floor it’s as happy as he’s ever sounded. And it’s followed immediately by the sexiest soul track Costello’s ever committed, “Everyday I Write the Book” a song with “hit single” written all over it. By I forgive that because it’s so smooth and catchy. Culture Club was the sound of the times. (Well, they and Madonna…). American Soul was getting another look. Disco was dead but everyone still wanted to dance.
What detracts from Punch is the production conceits of the era. The giant snare drum sound. It was so popular at that time that when it shows up it’s hard to get past. But the songs overcome it. With relative ease. The backing horns on “The Greatest Thing” take the album to a new level. It’s Sussudio without Phil Collins. (Thank god).
Side one of Punch is breezy and quick and so easily digestible. It’s one of the better groupings of Costello songs in ages. “Shipbuilding” is as beautiful a song has he’s ever recorded. It’s “Almost Blue” with more heart, more sadness, evoking desperation and futility. Amazing.
Side two is the swinging streets of London. Inspired by the sounds of the 60s. Elvis is on autopilot. But I don’t mean that in a bad way. He’s in his element. I don’t know if he’s in love or just comfortable with who he is but the songs are breezy, catchy and inspired. It’s impossible to point to one or two tracks, or go song by song because it’s all here. Everything to love about E and his backing band. It’s a sublime spin, this one.
Punch the Clock may be titled to suggest that Elvis is just doing his job and phoning one in. But it’s a lie. Because it ranks among his best.
Grade: A+
A-Side: Let Them All Talk, Everyday I Write the Book, Shipbuilding, The Invisible Man, The World and His Wife
BlindSide: The Greatest Thing, The Element Within Her, Love Went Mad, Mouth Almighty
Downside: Nothing. It’s great.
Elvis Costello – Goodbye Cruel World – 1984
On the CD remaster for GCW, Elvis wrote something to the effect of “Congratulations, you just bought my worst record”.
Knowing that going in didn’t fill me with too much hope. Especially coming off those two brilliant masterpieces, Imperial Bedroom and Punch the Clock. And I hoped that it wouldn’t cloud my opinion in either direction. Certainly I could join the hate bandwagon and that would make for an easy review. Or I could have my expectations lowered so far that the album might actually sound good.
The latter did not happen.
From the first radio friendly Punch the Clock era/Style Council mashup of “The Only Flame in Town” it’s apparent that the is Elvis by Numbers. Ever track seems to have been rejected by previous albums. “Room with No Number” could have been rejected from Get Happy. (And that’s being kind) “Worthless Thing” stinks of Imperial Bedroom. “Love Field” apes “Shipbuilding” so hard that it’s embarrassing. And it goes on. There’s nothing inventive, insightful, true or even memorable.
And there’s a song called “Joe Porterhouse”. Need I say more?
Okay. “Sour Milk Cow Blues”. Which sounds like a song that Squeeze rejected from Sweets with a Stranger
Only “The Deportees Club” rocks with any teeth. It’s almost crappy but it redeems itself by virtue of comparison with what surrounds it. (But I can see it falling off Trust)
And “Piece in Our Time” is a pretty song.
So, it doesn’t completely suck.
But it comes close.
Grade: D+
A-Side: The Only Flame in Town
BlindSide: The Deportees Club
DownSide: Love Field, I Wanna Be Loved, Joe Porterhouse
Elvis Costello – King of America – 1986
After taking a year off to get divorced and maybe relax, Costello returned with King of America in the mid-80s. It’s his, what, tenth studio album in about as many years? It’s also his most sedate. It can rock, don’t get me wrong, “The Big Light” shimmies and shakes due to some excellent country skiffle drumming by Mickey Curry, but this, the first album where The Attractions are not the only musicians but supported by a bunch of others calling themselves The Confederates. It is also the dullest.
Not to say it’s “bad”. It’s just so…adult. As opposed to the maturity on Imperial Bedroom, which was matched by the teeth of an angry, semi-young man, Costello just sounds toothsome.
“Eisenhower Blues” and “Jack of All Parades” sound…hmmm…as I write this I realize what I am reminded of:
Bruce Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love. Both came out within a year of each other. They are both the subdued voices of once vigorous rockers.
There are high points, most notably the album opener, “Brilliant Mistake” (Which is similar to the title of a song on Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love) and I kind of like the cover of “Don’t Let me Be Misunderstood”. But the rest of this record is easy listening Costello, at best. This album also represents the ascendency of Mitchell Froom.
Now, I love Mitchell Froom. But not for his work with Costello. I love Froom because he wrote the soundtrack to the futuristic pornographic film, “Cafe Flesh”. I bought that soundtrack. I loved it. I wish I could find it. I loved that an adult film HAD a soundtrack released, or at least music from it.
The edgy, pseudo New Wave sounds that Froom put to images of men dressed as mice fucking women dressed as cats is far superior to King of America.
Most reviews I read mark this record as a high point of Elvis’ career. I say it’s more harmless than it is fantastic.
One last thing. I will try to include it here because it bothers me SO much. “Little Palaces” is an almost note for note rip off of Warren Zevon’s “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner”. That steal is obvious and unforgivable.
Grade: B-
A-Side: Brilliant Mistake
BlindSide: Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
DownSide:
Elvis Costello – Blood & Chocolate – 1986
Elvis refers to himself on B&C as “Napoleon Dynamite”. I didn’t care for the movie. Would I like the album that predates is by almost two decades? The Attractions aren’t the only ones who are back for this record. Nick Lowe is also back as producer for the first time in years and his spare, caustic and edgy production is all over this disc.
1.Uncomplicated – What sounds like an experimental jam of musicians bashing their way through ideas and concepts is more energetic than ANYTHING on Elvis’ previous record.
2.I Hope You’re Happy Now – A rocker that reminds me of the Elvis from Armed Forces.
3.Tokyo Storm Warning – Co-Written with Cait O’Riordan. Another track that reminds me of the Elvis of Yore. It would fit fine on Trust or This Year’s Model. It’s basically a dylan-esque rambler that struggles to find it’s ending but cuts past the delicate balance of boredom by such stellar production.
4.Home is Anywhere You Hang Your Head – A tortured tale of unrequited love. The kind of tormented soul that Elvis can really get his head around.
5.I Want You – Takes the previous songs desperation to Lennon-esque levels. Costello is actually scary during this song. Easily one of the best in his canon.
6.Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind? – The theme of Blood and Chocolate is evident now. Desperate and tortured desire overwhelms this record. This garage blues number is terrific and the shortest cut on an album that seems to relish the time it takes to unfold it’s stories.
7.Blue Chair – Nothing special. Filler of the kind I don’t expect from Declan.
8.Battered Old Bird – The study of Country and Western storytelling has worked wonders on songwriters like Costello. While it’s not presented in that idiom at all, its vivid portrayal of the characters and heartbreaking vocals make it one not to be missed.
9.Crimes of Paris – The sort of song Costello wrote for Bedroom, without that Beatles-esque production.
10.Poor Napoleon – A dark stilleto of a song reminiscent of “You Little Fool”
11.Next Time Round – A rousing closer which harkens back to a late 70s flirtation with mashing up 50s basslines and 60s arrangements.
Blood & Chocolate is the most fun a Costello record has been since Punch the Clock. Its not nearly as upbeat as that record, not as jaunty or bouncy but how could it be? That was produced by the guys who produce Madness and this was helmed by Nick Lowe. The Jesus of Cool.
B&C is the darkest record since Trust and no less an equal to that spin.
Grade: A
A-Side: I Want You,
BlindSide: I Hope You’re Happy Now, Tokyo Storm Warning, Battered Old Bird
DownSide: Blue Chair
Elvis Costello – Spike – 1989
At some point in every successful artist’s career, it seems, there is a period of a great flurry of activity and then a little longer between releases and then finally, a space between that lasts longer than any before.
After the fantastic Blood & Chocolate Elvis went away.
For three bloody years.
He came back with Spike. An album that saw collaborations with the likes of Paul McCartney and Roger McGuinn.
And one of his biggest hits.
Here’s where I agree with the critics of Spike. It’s a pretty sprawling record. I’m 4 songs in and I can sense a guy coming in to the studio with some songs one day, writing some more on another, pulling out some old ideas and reworking them and spending the better part of 3 years cobbling tunes together.
So what? If the tracks are there, Mr. Ehrlewine, then they are there.
“Let Him Dangle” is as caustic as Costello’s ever been. “God’s Comic” is as lacerating as he’s ever been.
So far, and I might be wrong about this in about 40 minutes, Spike is a record for people who like Elvis Costello records. It’s not going to change anyone’s mind or bring too many new people into the fold. It doesn’t break any new ground, McManus doesn’t need to.
And no sooner did I write that then “Chewing Gum” came on. What is this? Besides a piss poor attempt at Hip Hop and Jazz? Dammit.
While “Tramp Down the Dirt” and “Satellite” might rank among the prettiest songs he’s written, I don’t have a clue what the instrumental “Stalin Malone” is doing here. Drop it and the album comes in under an hour. But then, this is the era of the CD and EVERY album has to clock in at least at that length.
“Baby Plays Around” rambles on in an attempt to sound like an oceanside cafe ditty and Miss MacBeth might rank among the ugliest of his career.
Spike doesn’t suck. But is a mishmash. Unfocused. It doesn’t seem to even be interested in itself.
Grade: C
A-Side: Veronica, This Town
BlindSide: Let Him Dangle, Tramp Down the Dirt”
DownSide: Chewing Gum, Stalin Malone, Miss Macbeth
Elvis Costello – Mighty Like A Rose – 1991
As I gave cursory reading to reviews of this album I was sure that it would be the nadir of Costello’s career. Something to loathe and point to as the decline of a once great artist.
Glad to say that I didn’t feel that way in the least.
Its quite possible that, listening to it immediately after the herky jerky confusion of Spike and coupled with the aforementioned reviews, I may have had my expectations lowered.
That said, sitting in the Houston International Airport, my connection missed (Thanks, Continental) I had little to do for two hours but listen to music and/or read.
Thing is, when I am hip deep in a Listening Post series the last thing I want to do is stop. It has only proved disastrous in the past. I have never finished Aerosmith and I feel guilty about that. And I am still due to write about Jagged, the last Gary Numan album. That one I’ve heard but I want to write a review that is longer than “been here before”.
Mighty starts off, well, mightily. He he. Not really. “The Other Side of Summer” is a poppy confection, produced to sound like a well oiled calliope driven carnival ride. And from there it just gets weirder. I want to hate songs like “Hurry Down Doomsday” with it’s over-wrought industrial, drum loops and samples, but I don’t. Instead, I kind of like it. And, for the first 3rd at least, the record lives up to the the promise of the title. It’s strong in it’s songcraft and pop, sweet but powerful. The olde English Minstrel sounds on “Harpies Bizarre” conjure 70s Jethro Tull to mind (Sounds nothing like Tull but…well, I couldn’t think of another minstrel band.)
The real rose on this record is “After the Fall”. Costello has always been a genius at mining the darker corners of the desperate, lonely and obsessive. Here he’s at it again. And, once again, like he does so often, he’s terrifying.
The two songs co-written wit Paul McCartney, “So Like Candy” and “Playboy to a Man” are fine. The former is lovely, the latter is gritty.
The only song I really didn’t care for is the Cait O’Riordan track, “Broken”. I can understand Costello giving his wife some place to play but, it’s more than a little indulgent and pretentiously morose.
Mighty Like a Rose isn’t the clunker it’s been made out to be. It’s easily better than the album that proceeded it. And it’s light years ahead of what’s coming…..
Grade: B-
A-Side: The Other Side of Summer, After the Fall
BlindSide: Harpies Bizarre
DownSide: Broken, Couldn’t Call It Unexpected No. 4
Elvis Costello – The Juliet Letter
Review located here.https://allenlulu.com/Allen_Lulu/The_Listening_Post/Entries/2010/2/21_Elvis_Costello_-_The_Juliet_Letters.html
Elvis Costello – Brutal Youth – 1994
Brutal Youth is Elvis’ attempt at a throwback. It’s an apology of sorts. How so? Wel,, first off, I believe Declan MacManus owes his label, his fans, and anyone who bought The Juliet Letters an apology for not putting, in big bold words on the cover of that record; “This is NOT a traditional Elvis Costello album! Caveat Emptor! If you are expecting Costello’s typical acerbic lyrics married to incisive and tight arrangements and equally taut musicianship, the only one of those you will find is the latter. And even that is by a STRING QUARTET. The one you see on the cover is NOT ironic. This album is THAT kind of record. Buyer beware.”
But he didn’t say anything like that. And, worse than any of you having to suffer through it: I did.
So, Costello came back with this album the next year. The Attractions are, for the most part, back. (Nick Lowe takes over bass duties for about half the album). And that cover, with the white and black kid hanging out together suggests Costello is STILL atoning for those offhanded, racist comments more than 15 years before.
What is not back, however, is the production. Froom handles that and I find that bizarre since Nick Lowe was already on hand in the studio and, lest anyone forget (Costello included) Lowe’s production helped propel all those early albums into the canon of essential rock albums.
What happens with Froom at the dials is you get a collection of familiar and incisive Costello songs with lethargic and precious production.
For the first half you can get past it. Especially on that compact opener, “Pony St”, a “This Year’s Model-esque song if I’ve ever heard one. The songs overwhelm their off-kilter production for a while. “Kinder Murder”, “Steps Lead Down”, “This is Hell” one of my all-time favorite, everything-sucks-for-you ballads, the jaunty “Clown Strike” the first third is a treasure trove of goodness.
After that the second set of five begin to feel the weight of Froom’s giant hands. While “Still to Soon to Know” is a danger ballad of the highest order, “20% Amnesia” suffers in it’s attempt to be an aged punk rocker sowing his oats.
The record loses it’s way for a while, never truly reaching the lows of “20%” but never reaching great great heights. “Just About Glad” is a song Elvis could write in his sleep, not very inspired. In fact, it sounds more like it’s trying to sound inspired.
Ending with a that familiar slow burn torch song that we have come to expect from Costello, Favourite Hour is, simply, no “Shipbuilding”.
Brutal Youth is that record that shows me that perhaps I know what to expect from a 40 year old whose been at it for the better part of a quarter century. I would just have expected that, at this age, Elvis would have the life experience and mettle to write something as poignant as Imperial Bedroom, which he wrote when he was 28.
Grade B
A-Side: Pony St, Kinder Murder, Clown Strike
BlindSide: This is Hell,
DownSide: 20% Amnesia
Elvis Costello – Kojak Variety – 1995
“What is Kojak Variety???”
I’ve actually heard this question come up in conversation more than a couple times in my life.
I will not profess to get the title. Someone else can do that.
I will, however, answer the question.
Kojak Variety is Elvis Costello’s second covers album. Instead of focusing on Country & Western to middling results (Almost Blue), he’s tackling the likes of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Lieber & Stoller and Little Richard.
It’s perfectly fine. Elvis sounds like Elvis. His backing band (not the Attractions) are talented. They hit all the notes correctly.
Thing is, if you dig this kind of music, be it early era rock or R&B, go get those records. Go listen to Screamin’ Jay who, I am sure made “Strange” sound…well, strange. You can’t listen to “Bama Lama Bama Loo” and NOT think of Little Richard, so go listen to some Little Richard records. “The Very Thought of You” just conjures to mind Natalie Cole’s quite excellent cover and makes me think of “Avalon” and “Orange Colored Sky” and when I think about those songs from her cover of her deceased dad’s music, I always just want to pull that record out. So, in all those ways, Kojak Variety fails.
What’s beyond strange to me is how or why Elvis chose to do this record. I don’t begrudge him a style-oriented theme record of songs he loves. But coming just two albums after The Juliet Letters I have to wonder just how far he wants to go in testing his fans’ patience. Because, were I an Elvis Costello fan in 1995, and I had been burned by TJL, only to feel like my hero wasn’t gonna let me down after BY, this record would make me think twice before buying another one.
Grade: C
Elvis Costello – All This Useless Beauty – 1996
An album that opens with the sparse, spare, “At the Other End of the Telescope” and doesn’t pick up pace for 2/3s of the way through, AtUB is haunting, lovely, delicate, precious all wrapped up in a songset that will break your heart, make you tear up and bring you home on a long journey.
Which is where I heard this album, flying high across the country, chasing the sun out west.
It is the first Elvis record that I listened to while never making notes, liveblogging or anything. I just listened. By the title track I was drawn in so deeply that it’s haunting warmth had a hold on me that by the time it started to pick up it’s pace on “Complicated Shadows”, the cycle had crept up on me so stealthily that I was hypnotized.
A lot of this has to do with choice of producer. Geoff Emerick of Imperial Bedroom and engineer for the Beatles is back at the helm and he seems to know when less is more and more is less. When the record gets a little experimental “Distorted Angel”, you don’t mind it. The semi-casio-esque synth is offset by such a delicate piano that they counter point each other perfectly.
The second half rocks out momentarily on “Shallow Grave” and “Starting to Come to me” but plumbs balladeer depth on “Poor Fractured Atlas” in between lest we think Elvis is going to bring back the rock.
Beauty is a hodgepodge of sounds but doesn’t have that unfocused feel of Spike. It will reward you on each spin.
Grade B+
A-Side: At the Other End of the Telescope, All this Useless Beauty,
BlindSide: Little Atoms, Starting to Come to Me, You Bowed Down
Elvis Costello – Painted From Memory – 1998 (w/Burt Bacharach)
Always trying to push the envelope, to find new ways to express himself, Declan “Elvis Costello” McManus often slips into some weird experimentation. Witness his C&W album, “Almost Blue”, his R&B/Blues covers album Kojak Variety, the string quartet backed “The Juliet Letters” and even his soul apology, Get Happy!
Here we go again. This time, Costello has paired himself with the legendary Burt Bacharach for an album that, well, to be perfectly, I felt nauseated by.
If you take early 70s schmaltz and marry it with the quavering croon of Costello, but strip out any traditional verse, chorus, verse, and avoid any and all hooks and you have Painted By Memory.
I know that this record was heralded as a comeback for both artists but I can’t help but feel like they just both had really good PR people behind it. You know, when Costello did “I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself”, a Bacharach tune from eons ago, it was great. A perfect marriage of tunesmith and singer who was also a consummate tunesmith.
There’s nothing as good as that here, even though they won a Grammy for “I Still Have that Other Girl”.
I just want Costello to rock again, is that too much to ask?
Grade C-
Elvis Costello – When I Was Cruel – 2002
The only difference between The Imposters, the backing band on the return to form album, When I Was Cruel, is a different bass player than the Attractions.
Is that why the album tastes so good?
Or is it just that I like Elvis when he’s rocking and dislike him when he does…anything else?
Both.
The opening track, “45” is a playful rock whose starting point was Elvis’ age when he wrote it. The delicate “Spooky Girlfriend” reminds of the best early 80s Costello work. “Tear Off Your Own Head” which was covered blandly the next year by The Bangles is a crusty single that just makes me wish Elvis would do more records like this.
The song “15 Petals” actually sounds like a harbinger of “15 Step” by Radiohead from 7 years later. I wonder….
The wordplay and melody on my favorite track, “Tart”, just serves to remind me of what I love about Elvis.
The record is all over the place. It’s like Spike that way. But the production is less precious and the band is more than up to the task.
Grade: B+
A-Side: 45, Tear Off Your Own Head (A Doll Revolution)
BlindSide: Spooky Girlfriend, Tart
DownSide: Alibi
Elvis Costello – North – 2003
If Gershwin got drunk, became suicidal and decided to write songs for his eulogy, it would sound exactly like North.
That’s about all I want to say about this record except that I am better than you. And worse.
Better because I can say I actually got through this terrible record. Worse for precisely the same reason.
Grade: D-
Elvis Costello – The Delivery Man – 2004
This is more like it. The Imposters, nee The Attractions (minus one) are back and while the songs are all over the place it’s still light years better than some of those turgid Elvis offerings.
Thing is, I’m not sure I’m reviewing Elvis anymore or comparing him to his best.
The Delivery Man doesn’t deliver on all cylinders. The stories are there (“The Delivery Man”, “The Judgment”) along with the playful Americana styles (gospel, country, rock) and, while the record never really congeals as a whole, it’s good to have a great songsmith “delivering”.
Grade: B-
ASide: Bedlam, Needle Time
BlindSide: Either Side of the Same Town, The Judgment
DownSide: Button My Lip
Elvis Costello – Momofuku – 2008
The first thing I thought as I listened to Momofuku (during a 5 album listening blitz from Texas to California) is how fast it sounds. And then, when I looked up the history, it turns out, yes, this was recorded with record fury.
“American Gangster Time” & “Stella Hurt” are Elvis as Garage Band leader. You can hear the band getting ready on “Turpentine”. The ballads are less cloying, “Flutter and Wow” and the honky tonky “Mr. Feathers”.
Momofuku makes you wish that Elvis would abandon the pet projects with String Quartets, and incessant balladeering and retro-kitsch and just get back to work.
Maybe because I long for that tooth gnashing melodist that I enjoyed Momofuku so much.
Or maybe it’s just good.
Grade: A-
ASide: American Gangster Time, Go Away
BlindSide: Turpentine, My Three Sons
Secret, Profane and Sugarcane – 2009
Nuanced and lovely, Sugarcane is to Elvis what Sweet and Lowdown was to Woody Allen. In the middle of the mire and muck the muse settles down on the shoulders of a once giant storyteller and blesses him once more.
The best thing Costello did was hire back T-Bone Burnett to come in, shape the tracks, keep him focused and give him some timeless, civil war era dusty sound. This is Elvis’ best in a while.Coming off the strength of Momofuku, that’s saying something.
A little slow around the middle, it’s nonetheless an excellent listen. When its dour, it’s never as horrible as North. This is middle aged music, to be sure. But it’s just lovely.
Grade: A-
ASide: Complicated Shadows, Down Among the Wine and Spirits
BlindSide: Hidden Shame, Sulphur to Sugarcane
