Review of When I Was Cruel
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2002-04-25
- Dave Tianen

 

Elvis Costello's 'When I Was Cruel'

Last Updated: April 25, 2002

Review


"When I Was Cruel" is Elvis Costello's first rock album in a decade.


At long last, Elvis Costello the rock star is back in action.

Costello has spent most of the last decade on a series of eclectic sojourns that teamed him with such offbeat partners as Burt Bacharach and the Brodsky Quartet. With "When I Was Cruel" (Island), we once again hear the Elvis we love and fear.

Costello doesn't so much write songs as carefully crafted poison darts of music. As an artist, his greatest gift is smarts and imagination. Sonically that comes across in an album that mingles vibraphone, horns, electric clavinet, Spanish guitar and something called the frog guiro (a wood-block percussion instrument). The result is an eccentric and ever-varied musical landscape.

The same intelligence is at work lyrically. "Soul For Hire" confronts the sleaze of the legal profession. "Radio Silence" recoils from the empty noise of talk radio. "Dust" plays with the thought of dust mites as silent witnesses to human perfidy.

Still, I can never quite totally embrace Elvis II. Part of it is the braying voice. But mostly it's the muscular cynicism. There's no denying the brilliance, but there's a streak of unrelenting meanness. Sadly, "When I Was Cruel" is not exactly an ironic title.

- Dave Tianen

Copyright © 2002, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel