News of activities surrounding the release of When I Was Cruel
Billboard, 2002-04-01
- Paul Sexton

 

The Wait Is Over: Elvis Gets Rowdy

By Paul Sexton

Welcome back to the only new-wave hero whose last record was with a mezzo-soprano and whose next project is "a 200-page score written with a pencil." Between these projects, Elvis Costello is rockin' again.

Not that he cares to use the word "rock" to describe "When I Was Cruel," due April 23 on Island in the U.S. and a day earlier in the U.K. (sic) on Mercury. "Rowdy rhythm" is the phrase Costello uses to capture the mood of the collection that follows "For the Stars," his recent collaboration with Anne Sofie von Otter released last year, and 1998's project with Burt Bacharach, "Painted From Memory."

Costello says, "Some people might think that because this record has two [members of his former band, the] Attractions on it [keyboardist Steve Nieve and drummer Pete Thomas], it must naturally be the successor to [1986's] "Blood & Chocolate." But it's not in any way rooted in the past."

Island president Julie Greenwald is unequivocal in her view of the project. "I totally think of it as a rock record. But it's very contemporary. He has an amazing past, but he really wanted us to make sure we were focusing on today."

"When I Was Cruel" introduces strident basslines by new band member Davey Farragher, the effective use of a one-word sample (a device Costello had previously eschewed) by 1960s Italian singer Mina on "When I Was Cruel No. 2," and some distinctively devilish word games. The latter track quotes from Abba's "Dancing Queen," while on "Episode of Blonde," in a line credited to his wife Cait O'Riordan, he sings: "Every Elvis has his Army, every rattlesnake his charm."

Costello is "working his ass off," Greenwald says, on promotion, including major TV chat shows, MTV2, Internet activity with Amazon and MSN, countless press outlets, and a showpiece April 18 date in New York (two days after one at London's Astoria) in the lead-up to a U.S. tour beginning in May.

Of his frequent ventures outside the rock mainstream, Costello says, "I never thought of it like a conversion to a new religion. I think, you know, I put myself wholeheartedly into everything, I don't consider anything as a side project, and I'm not usually one to worry about sales, but the audiences for 'Painted From Memory,' 'The Juliet Letters' [his 1993 album with the Brodsky Quartet], and even the Anne Sofie record have not been inconsiderable."

The week before the U.S. tour, in a juxtaposition that he says epitomizes the two-tier nature of his Universal deal, Costello will be in the studio with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and the London Symphony Orchestra for the Deutsche Grammophon recording of his first full orchestral score, "Il Sogno." Written, as he says, across 200 pages "in pencil," it was commissioned by Italian dance company Aterballetto, which will perform "Il Sogno" at Royce Hall in Los Angeles in July as part of Costello's UCLA Artist in Residence season.

Happy to chat about any aspect of music, from the success of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" -- a live performance of which he hosted last year at New York's Carnegie Hall -- to Brian Wilson's live shows in London in January, Costello expresses a sense of carpe diem.

"I'm not going to repeat the past, but I can run most people ragged in terms of volume of work - I don't fall down very easily. I just want to take full advantage while I'm feeling as alive as this."

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Excerpted from the April 6, 2002, issue of Billboard. The full original text of the article is available in the Billboard.com members section.