Circus, October 31, 1984

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Circus

US rock magazines

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Costello and Lowe spread pub rock


John Swenson

Elvis Costello & The Attractions / Goodbye Cruel World
Nick Lowe & His Cowboy Outfit / Nick Lowe & His Cowboy Outfit

It's ironic that Elvis Costello once was known as the angry young man of British punk rock. This perception has always created much confusion about Costello's motives — those who tabbed him as a force of anarchy early on were incensed by the time he cut the good-grooving r&b mode of Get Happy with producer Nick Lowe. Those same critics have since given up, for Costello has confused them further with such items as a country album, Almost Blue, and the exquisitely drawn psychoanalysis of Imperial Bedroom. Clearly it was an error in judgement to pigeonhole Costello as a rabble-rouser.

The problem of establishing Costello's motive is easy to solve if you go back and take another look at the beginning of the punk era. The Cecil B. DeMille-size promotion assembled by Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren held that no music made before 1976 could ever be worth consideration again. Given McLaren's subsequent promotions those claims now seem like a quaint put-on of those frightened enough to have ever taken him seriously. History has been distorted as a result of McLaren's efforts, however, and in the process Costello has been mislabeled.

The fact is that punk rock was a direct outgrowth of the values promoted by the likes of Costello and Nick Lowe as "pub rock" in the years immediately proceeding the arrival of punk. Pub rock was a back-to-the-roots movement that championed musical values over the pomp and excess that British arena rock had been built around. Both Costello and Lowe were key figures in pub rock — if there had been no punk-rock explosion, Costello's angered outbursts would have been viewed as much as a part of his deeply conservative instincts as his love for country music and his eloquent ballad style.

Both Cruel World and Cowboy Outfit are squarely in the tradition of the no-nonsense rock and roots music that Lowe and Costello have championed throughout their careers. Cruel World runs a range of feelings. "The Only Flame" is a cool, r&b-influenced song which strives for that contemporary blue-eyed soul sound codified by Hall & Oates, so it makes sense that Daryl Hall's singing backup vocals on the track. "Home Truth" is a more personalized love ballad that extends the themes of emotional realism from Imperial Bedroom. "Room With No Number" is a merry mixture of odd sounds that match the disoriented mystery of the lyrics. Like "Watching the Detectives," "Inch By Inch" has a built-in suspense drawn by sinister organ fills and smoky saxophone lines.

"Worthless Thing" is Costello's tribute to the ugly and dispossessed, a song that touches the sense of rage and little-guy frustration that fueled Costello's legend in the first place. Two more songs, "Love Field" and "I Wanna Be Loved," offer Costello's hard fought case for love. "Love Field" is an atmospheric, narcosis-like vision of love as a kind of suspended animation; "I Wanna Be Loved" surrounds Costello's soulful vocal lament with calypso-inflected music.

Costello also includes one of his strongest political songs, "Peace in Our Time," which lashes out at the prevailing notion of peace, while a polite waltz-time ballad threatens to become an outro to the human race.

Lyrically, Nick Lowe represents a less serious side of the pub rock tradition, but his music has as much scope and depth, and even more drive, than Costello's. He comes out rocking with "Half a Boy and Half a Man," a great piece of Tex-Mex roll in the tradition of Question Mark & the Mysterians, the Swinging Medallions, Sir Douglas Quintet and Joe King Carrasco.

With a crack band that includes keyboardist Paul Carrack, guitarist Martin Belmont and drummer Bobby Irwin, and abetted by his own bass playing, Lowe slips and slides his way through the Mickey Jupp classic "You'll Never Get Me Up (In One of Those)" and other pounding rockers like "(Hey Big Mouth) Stand Up and Say That," "Maureen" and "Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young." Ex-Rockpile sidekick Billy Bremner comes in on guitar for "Love Like a Glove" and "Break Away," while ex-Fabulous Poodles violinist Bobby Valentino plays on "God's Gift to Women."

What Goodbye Cruel World and Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit ultimately prove is that good instincts will always outlast trends.


Tags: The AttractionsGoodbye Cruel WorldNick Lowe & His Cowboy OutfitGet Happy!!Nick LoweAlmost BlueImperial BedroomThe Sex PistolsThe Only Flame In TownDaryl HallHome TruthRoom With No NumberWatching The DetectivesInch By InchWorthless ThingLove FieldI Wanna Be LovedPeace In Our TimeQuestion Mark & the MysteriansSir Douglas QuintetPaul CarrackMartin BelmontBobby IrwinMickey JuppRockpileBilly Bremner

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Circus, October 31, 1984


John Swenson reviews Goodbye Cruel World and Nick Lowe & His Cowboy Outfit.

Images

1984-10-31 Circus page 117.jpg
Page scan.


Photo by Barry Schultz.
1984-10-31 Circus photo 01 bs.jpg


Cover and page scans.
1984-10-31 Circus cover.jpg 1984-10-31 Circus page 05.jpg 1984-10-31 Circus page 118.jpg

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