|
When the "Elvis Is Alive" craze was reaching its peak last year, a peculiar reversal began sweeping Los Angeles. "Elvis is dead" spread the word in the rock community, a confusion of Elvises that caused many to fear that the man called Costello was no more.
Though the rumor was quickly countered, it is easy to see why some believed it. After all, Costello had long committed himself to a pace of feverish creativity, releasing an album — or two or three — every year, with 15 or so songs per album, followed by tours that were every bit as ambitious as the albums they supported. Since there had been nothing heard from Elvis since September of '86, he must be dead.
With the release of Spike, it's apparent he was only recharging his batteries. His first album for Warner Bros. after more than a decade with Columbia, Spike features all of the musical range, emotional intensity and melodic invention we have come to expect from Costello at his best.
As an attempt to find new forms for his familiar obsessions, it is Costello's most ambitious album since 1982's Imperial Bedroom. Produced by Costello in collaboration with T Bone Burnett and Kevin Killen, Spike lacks the immediacy and the cohesiveness of his finest efforts with the Attractions, the British trio that usually backs him, but it shows Costello's ability to make disparate musical strains into something that's all his own.
From Celtic pipes to New Orleans brass, the music offers textures and twists that renew Costello's creative vitality. With an hour's worth of material (15 songs on cassette and CD, 14 on LP), Spike celebrates an overflow of invention, offering more than the usual value for the money.
Subtitled "The Beloved Entertainer," the album's title is taken from Spike Jones, though Spike also indicates a songwriting sensibility that is as pointed as ever. The album opens with the heartwarming sentiment that "You're nobody 'til everybody in this town thinks you're poison." It closes with our hero departing "on the last boat leaving this stinking town."
In between, the world of Spike is a global village where personal heartbreak meets political heartlessness, where God laughs down at his little joke and Margaret Thatcher rules without remorse. Even as an angry young man, Costello rarely sounded angrier than he does on "Let Him Dangle" and "Tramp the Dirt Down," while the tenderness of his vocal on "Baby Plays Around" and "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror" stops just short of breaking the listener's own heart.
The musical arrangements make particularly effective use of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band from New Orleans, which is featured on four cuts (including "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror," which additionally benefits from the New Orleans piano mastery of Allen Toussaint). Guitarist Marc Ribot and percussionist Michael Blair from Tom Waits' band also play prominent roles, giving the music a bracing abrasiveness.
The more pop-oriented collaborations might help make this the most popular album of Costello's career. "Veronica," the album's first single, benefits from co-writer Paul McCartney's melodic bounce and typically propulsive bass work, while "Satellite" features a gorgeous chorus harmony from the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde.
"Tramp the Dirt Down" and "Any King's Shilling," two of the album's most moving performances, have the feel of Irish folk music, as pipes and fiddles provide the perfect setting for Costello's socially conscious balladry. With "Miss Macbeth," Costello dares to match the traditional Irish musicians with the Dirty Dozen, while Attractions' drummer Pete Thomas keeps the beat as straightforward rock.
As rewarding as Spike is, I wouldn't suggest that Costello wait another 2½ years before his next album. His quicker efforts with the Attractions benefited from an urgency and a concision that is largely missing here. Almost all of the carefully arranged songs are more than four minutes long, and most of them could stand to be shorter. Even so, "Any King's Shilling" and "Satellite," the two longest numbers, also are two of the best.
"God's Comic" ultimately is too facile and obvious for the ambitiousness of Costello's theme, but Costello's reach is a reward in itself, even when it exceeds his grasp. At a point in his career where most songwriters have run out of gas, Spike shows Costello with a full head of steam.
| 
