Binghamton Evening Press, August 12, 1982

From The Elvis Costello Wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
... Bibliography ...
727677787980818283
848586878889909192
939495969798990001
020304050607080910
111213141516171819
202122232425 26 27 28


Binghamton Evening Press

New York publications

Newspapers

University publications

Magazines and alt. weeklies


US publications by state
  • ALAKARAZCA
  • COCTDCDEFL
  • GAHI   IA      ID      IL
  • IN   KSKYLA   MA
  • MDME   MIMNMO
  • MSMTNC  ND  NE
  • NHNJNMNVNY
  • OHOKORPARI
  • SCSDTNTXUT
  • VAVTWAWIWY

-

Imperial Bedroom

Elvis Costello and the Attractions

Field News Service

So much of pop is strategy; taking elements that strike a responsive chord in the widest possible audience, and rearranging them — nay, reinventing them — in such a manner that they sound fresh all over again. Somewhat paradoxically, the most inspired pop turns the neat trick of presenting itself as both universal and utterly unique.

IbMePdErRoIoAmL (or Imperial bedroom, if you separate the capital letters from the lower case) reconfirms that Elvis Costello is the master strategist of contemporary pop — an artist whose command of the culture's twists and turns is so total as to be almost subversive. No one else could weave references ranging from Cole Porter to classic Merseybeat and Motown to American football ("I'm a little down, with a lifetime to go") into a coherent whole that is both open-endedly suggestive and elliptically personal.

In contrast to his most powerfully claustrophobic work of the past, the album finds Costello opening himself to a greater array of experience and depth of emotion. The ballads here — "Almost Blue," "Kid About It" and "Boy With a Problem" — are uniformly gorgeous, although never merely pretty. While there are no flat out rockers, the tautness of the mid-tempo arrangements results in a tension rivaling rock at its most vital. Stripped to the bone, the music cuts to the heart.

-

The Evening Press, August 12, 1982


Field News Service reviews Imperial Bedroom.

Images

1982-08-12 Binghamton Evening Press page C1 clipping 01.jpg
Clipping.

Page scan.
1982-08-12 Binghamton Evening Press page C1.jpg

-



Back to top

External links