Review of When I Was Cruel
Salon, 2002-04-22
- Greil Marcus

 

Real Life Rock Top 10

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By Greil Marcus

April 22, 2002

1) Elvis Costello, "When I Was Cruel" (Island)

This always surprising work reaches into the netherworlds of such long-ago Costello compositions as "I Want You," "Pills and Soap" and "Green Shirt." More than that, it conjures up the displacement -- the weird sense of privileged resentment -- of the overlooked "My Dark Life," made in 1996 for the "X Files" tribute "Songs in the Key of X" (now included on the Rhino reissue of Costello's "All This Useless Beauty," from the same year). And with Steve Nieve, keyboards, and Pete Thomas, drums, "When I Was Cruel" is a redrawn breath of Costello's 1978 voice, the thuggishness thickened in the throat like a certain thickening of the body. The tunes are rough, hard, inventive, moving too fast: "Like a Jewish figure revolving on a music box." Really? Did I just hear that coming out of the song, or did I write it in myself?

The heart of the album -- across years of experiments, Costello's best since "All This Useless Beauty," if not far better -- may be "When I Was Cruel No. 2" ("When you were cruel?" cry the fans. "When weren't you?") The slow performance has the languid feel of post-"La Dolce Vita" movies, everybody passed out in their Pucci outfits and only the singer walking through the gilded room, deciding what to take. The music is built around a tiny sample "from a '60s italian pop record by the great singer, mina," repeated every six seconds: "Oh, no," she seems to be saying. It's an indelible bit of rhythmic punctuation, and like Eminem's use of Dido's "Thank You" in his "Stan" but infinitely more subtle, a commentary on the story the singer is telling, insisting on doubt, melodrama and bad news.

Copyright 2002 Salon.com