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Speaking as a member of the press, I'm glad to see the formerly close-mouthed Elvis Costello is yapping it up in a bevy of interviews.
But speaking as an Elvis Costello fan, I wish that he'd shut up.
Costello has decided to set his mouth in motion to help hype his new album, King of America. Fair enough.
But at the same time that he's telling interviewers about how neat and nifty his latest is, he's also proclaiming how lame he now thinks his previous two albums were. Which is just about the same thing as telling fans who shelled out good money for those discs (Punch the Clock and Goodbye Cruel World) that they were jerks for buying them and idiots for liking them.
Costello's record company, Columbia, has gone so far as to base its advertising campaign on Costello's remarks renouncing his past work. "This Time He Means It" reads the ad copy for King of America. As if to say, "Forget about the Costello records you thought you liked before, fools. This one's the real thing."
If Costello and Columbia truly believe that this is the first time "he means it," I suggest Columbia do the following: Either (a) eliminate Costello's "he didn't really mean it" albums from your catalog and stop making profits by continuing to sell them to the public, or, even better, (b) give a free copy of King of America to any fan who turns in an old Elvis Costello album at their local record store.
Sad to say, most music critics seem to have fallen in line by overpraising King of America as some sort of sea change and a vast improvement over other recent Costello albums.
I beg to differ. While I stand in admiration of Costello's ambition and talent, I find most of King of America as dull as dirt — especially the tame backup work by his legendary American session men (New Orleans drum master Earl Palmer, jazz bassist Ray Brown, Elvis Presley's backup band, etc.). Costello's music with his regular mates, the Attractions, was far more ear-grabbing.
All in all, King of America has everything in common with Costello's other '80s albums. It's an inconsistent collection of songs that, despite flashes of brilliance, sink under the weight of their overladen lyrics. More melody, more hooks, and more punch would he welcome.
While I'm glad Costello takes the time to consider the work he's done in the past, he should think some more before disowning it. What's he going to say a few years down the road when he listens back and discovers King of America isn't nearly as wonderful as he seems to think it is right now? Will Columbia run an ad campaign for his new record claiming "This Time He Means It... Again."?
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