|
It's hard to believe that beneath the cynical, bitter facade Elvis Costello presents on his two previous albums, This Year's Model and My Aim Is True, dwells a romantic idealist.
He has camouflaged the vulnerability of his ideals with a punky arrogance, particularly in the haunting "Alison" from My Aim Is True in which he rails against being too sentimental while turning out a song dedicated to a special love.
On the new album, clearly his best, Costello continues his pose. But, as if he's becoming more comfortable with the audience, he lets his hair down too.
This is evident from the first song, "Accidents Will Happen," to the last, "What's So Funny About Peace, Love And Understanding?"
This album single-handedly picks up before we were so rudely interrupted in the late Sixties. Listening to it is like hearing landmarks such as Dylan's Blonde On Blonde, the Beatles' Revolver or the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds for the first time. A progression to a more insightful and musically adept form of rock was beginning to appear in this era, but nobody ever delivered the follow-through.
While the rock music that has appeared in the Interim has become musically more sophisticated, the insight has given way to mindlessness.
Costello, unlike many others who have mined Sixties music for their Seventies sound, has used it to fashion a statement, as heavy-handed and naive as that sounds in these jaded days.
Sometimes it comes as a frightening condemnation of conformity such as "Goon Squad." The song is a letter home to the folks telling how well the character is doing, the promises made to him by his superiors and his realization that "I never thought they'd put me in the Goon Squad."
This is in contrast to the most criticized segment of British punk rock, which glorifies Nazism. Costello is hostile towards it, artlessly singing, "You'll never catch them making a lampshade out of me."
The theme is restated in another song, "Two Little Hitlers." "We're two little Hitlers who'll fight it out until one little Hitler does the other one's will."
Musically, it's reminiscent of Costello's "Watching the Detectives" and also of Sixties spy movie soundtracks.
The album's opener, "Accidents Win Happen," is one of Costello's strongest melodies so far. It'll be a hit single and you'll be humming the chorus almost instantly.
The lyrics — "Accidents will happen; they're only hit and run; you used to be a victim; now you're not the only one..." — are about the unplanned ways people hurt each other. The closing line of the chorus admits the guilt that it paradoxically denies: "I don't want to hear it, 'cause I know what I've done."
After singing about the isolation and pain inherent in modern living (it's described wittily, with manic yet pleasant rock musk), Costello ends the album with a straightforward rocker with straightforward lyrics: "What's So Funny About Peace, Love And Understanding?"
It's an open admission that this is a "wicked world" and that he's searching for "the light." By asking the question he points out how unfashionable it is to talk about these things unless you coach them in idiosyncratic language as Costello has done on all three of his albums.
On Armed Forces, producer Nick Lowe has finally turned in a production Job that completely supports the artist There are clever touches but nothing that overwhelms the basic work.
As a bonus there is a live extended play single of Costello at Hollywood High which features a completely different version of "Accidents Will Happen," "Alison" and "Watching The Detectives."
| 
