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Elvis Costello was once an angry young man. He's older now and that anger has turned to bitterness, at least on All This Useless Beauty.
The 12-song collection is an exercise in rancor: Tin Pan Alley rancor; Byrds-inspired rancor; punkish rancor; funky rancor; faux classical rancor.
"Our brief acquaintance."
The bright jangle of "You Bowed Down" (written for Roger McGuinn, it opens, fittingly, with a direct reference to "Turn, Turn, Turn") belies an accusatory tone that eases into contempt.
"But I don't know why you absolutely deny."
Elsewhere Costello is interested in broken men, especially on "Poor Fractured Atlas" and "Why Can't a Man Stand Alone?" Both are pleas for nonconformity and independence. The songwriter is compassionate in his portrayal of the accountant (or some such) in "Fractured Atlas" who's "out in the woods with his squirrel gun."
And he answers a question with a question on the rhetorical "Why Can't a Man Stand Alone?":
"Must he be burdened by all that he's taught.
Lyrically, Costello is just as crafty and hyperclever as ever. In "The Other End of the Telescope" he rhymes moping with Chopin. Musically, his staggering ambition teams with 20 years of experience to provide the listener with almost endless variety.
In addition to his command of styles ranging from Tin Pan Alley of the 1940s to pop-rock of the 1960s, Costello is an inveterate dabbler and collector of sounds:
"Little Atoms" is characterized by a peculiar keyboard riff reminiscent of the Alan Parsons Project; "Complicated Shadows" is an unrefined rocker with distorted guitars and crashing drums; "Starting to Come to Me" is propulsive cowpoke music.
Each song is taken at a different tempo, and each freely roams between pianissimo and fortissimo. Each song features an assortment of unusual and unexpected noises: Rocket ships take off; church bells chime.
However chaotic the music seems, Costello is right there to provide order to intricate compositions. His voice swoops down on All This Useless Beauty and is greeted by bass clarinet when it bottoms out.
It's just one subtle touch on an album full of them.
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