Review of When I Was Cruel
Fox News, 2002-04-01
- Roger Friedman

 

Elvis Costello Cruel Again

No one would have expected this, but at 47, British rocker Elvis Costello has done it again. He's made an album of such unexpectedly complex music and lyrics, catchy pop songs, and seething rage that it should be mandatory listening for wannabe rockers of any age. When I Was Cruel comes to stores on April 23, and I'll tell you this: if the naysayers in the music industry don't support this album then they have no one to blame for the end of it but themselves.

Costello astounds. After being defanged by Burt Bacharach, making records and appearances with country stars, opera singers and jazz musicians, it seemed like he would never be able to regain his footing. Indeed, a handful of his albums over the last quarter decade (sic) — Imperial Bedroom, All This Useless Beauty, and Brutal Youth among them — define rock and singer/songwriters since Springsteen.

Unfortunately, unlike the Boss and other popular rockers, Costello is not American and has no hometown from which to rally the troops. He's an international iconoclast with an Irish bent — a chip for each shoulder and then some.

Nevertheless, When I Was Cruel (released on the Island/DefJam label) is simply brilliant. With a pounding bass line, the album harkens back to Costello's best work with his group, the Attractions. His collaborator/keyboardist Steve Nieve has somehow found the spirit of some of Costello's most biting pieces — like the old "Pills and Soap" — and reinvented it all into a scathing track filled with witticisms (from ABBA, of all things) and inside jokes (one written by Costello's wife).

Since April 23 is a ways off, and you can only pre-order When I Was Cruel from the Internet, I will stop here and wait again until April 22 to tell you more. But considering the sorry state of pop music right now, this news about Elvis Costello is more than just heartening. Could it be his year at last? We can only hope and pray.