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The Eagles, Traffic, the Rolling Stones, King Crimson, the Velvet Underground: 1994 is quickly turning out to be the year of the reunion.
Elvis Costello, it seems, has hopped on the bandwagon as well, patching things up with his beloved backing band, the Attractions. The result: Brutal Youth, a strong new album that harks back to the late-'70s creative streak that helped spawn the New Wave movement with such definitive albums as This Year's Model and Armed Forces.
Costello and the Attractions are in the midst of a tour in support of the release, the first collection with all Attractions alumni — Costello, Bruce Thomas (bass), Pete Thomas (drums) and Steve Nieve (keyboards) — present since 1986's Blood & Chocolate. The band will perform at the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia Thursday.
When recording Brutal Youth, Costello claims that deliberate backtracking was never the intention.
"There's no desire to sound like a rehash of the records that we did then," Costello said recently. "Anything that is reminiscent of it musically is there because I think it's the right music for the song."
In writing his latest batch of tunes — including the typically edgy and oblique single, "13 Steps Lead Down," the gorgeous "Kinder Murder" and the jubilant opening cut, "Pony St." — Costello said the need for the Attraction's adept intensity evolved naturally. But the singer/guitarist, who had already gotten together with drummer Pete Thomas to make some songs for British singer Wendy James, admitted the actual reunion came about in different stages. Brutal Youth was recorded in three groups of sessions," he said. "I really needed a band. I needed a bass player; I needed something to anchor it."
Costello brought in producer Mitchell Froom (Crowded House) and Nick Lowe, who produced some of Costello's best '70s work, on bass. As things progressed, he soon called on Nieve to add keyboards, and eventually Bruce Thomas came aboard for the more complicated bass parts.
"Mitchell brought up Bruce Thomas," Costello said. "I thought, 'Well, why not give it a go?' So then we talked — and we hadn't spoken in two years — and decided to do it."
While the Attractions were in attendance for Costello's most fruitful period, his career has been bracketed by time spent as the sole person in the spotlight. He crossed the sea from England in 1977 as a self-conscious afterthought coughed up from the punk rock explosion that spawned such bands as the Sex Pistols and the Clash. Costello's classic debut, My Aim Is True, was recorded with the San Francisco bar band Clover, and contained the New Wave staples "Alison" and "Watching the Detectives."
A string of solid to masterful albums saw Costello through the '70s and half of the '80s. But around the time of 1983's Punch the Clock, and its bouncy but tame single "Everyday I Write the Book," it was obvious Costello was growing weary of his leadership post with the Attractions.
He spent the rest of the decade crafting a handful of frustratingly uneven solo outings, breaking briefly for the inauspicious Blood & Chocolate reunion with his former bandmates.
If his early-'90s solo albums are any indication, Costello needed to regain his focus and recapture, in a sense, his roots. The Attractions were an obvious starting point.
"The name of the album is Brutal Youth, so I thought what was needed was a group of youthful brutes. The Attractions were the natural choice," Costello said. "Apart from that, I believe they are the greatest group in the world."
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