Durham Herald-Sun, July 7, 1991

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Ballads-n-Beatles


Ron Gregory

Elvis' anger in brilliant disguise

Ballads and Beatles dominate the new Elvis Costello recording, Mighty Like A Rose.

This is an unexpected critique of someone who began his career as one of the angriest and bitterest members of the British new wave movement of the late '70s.

That movement has proven to be the most fruitful and influential since the late '60s. In a staggering three-year period that movement produced Costello's My Aim Is True, This Year's Model and Armed Forces, the Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks, the Clash's self-titled debut, and Graham Parker's Howlin' Wind and Heat Treatment.

All these artists were born of anger. But only Costello was also born with an amazing gift for melody lines and phrasing. Anger on its own terms, whether forced or genuine, can only stand up for so long. Eventually, it gives way to contentment or disillusionment. Because of this, so many artists tagged as "angry young men" fade away quickly.

But Costello has outlasted his contemporaries — the members of the British New Wave movement. He is viewed in much larger and broader terms — as an artist who will be included among the greatest of recent pop history.

So it is not surprising that Mighty Like A Rose is cloaked in ballads and Beatles. Like the Beatles, Costello can clothe his anger in pop melodies so gorgeous and soaring that one almost overlooks the message.

If you're making Beatles comparisons, you might as well start at the source. "So Like Candy" and "Playboy to a Man" were co-written with Paul McCartney.

"So Like Candy" is a stark ballad with stinging bits of Costelloisms like "Here lie the records that she scratched / And on the sleeve I find a note attached / And it's so like Candy / My darling dear it's such a waste / She couldn't say 'Goodbye' / But 'I admire your taste'."

In "Playboy to a Man" Costello wryly observes the stripping away of a former playboy's façade as the girl he desires turns the tables. "You went out on your own one too many nights / You treated her like some small oversight / What in the world makes her think that she can / turn you from a playboy into a man." Eventually the transformation becomes a reality. "You couldn't see the juvenile things you do / Would drag you down and now the joke's on you... So now you're standing in your underwear / Well, now you know just how it feels for her / You're halfway there you know that she can / Turn you from a playboy into a man."

In many ways, Mighty Like A Rose recalls Bob Dylan's Blood On The Tracks. Both feature complex characters involved in complex relationships, presented in much the same way lyrically. Each song relates a separate story or incident, but all is shrouded in elegant and somewhat mysterious phrasing. We understand the basic themes, but the specifics are hard to nail down.

Musically, however, the two works are quite dissimilar. Dylan chose to present Blood on the Tracks in very stark terms, with stripped-down instrumentation. Costello, on the other hand, embellishes Mighty Like A Rose with Beatle-esque loops and instrumental arrangements. On "How To Be Dumb, " "Harpies Bizarre," "The Other Side of Summer" and several other moments, it's impossible not to recall Sergeant Pepper's or Abbey Road.

Costello stretches himself even more instrumentally by featuring the Dirty Dozen Brass Band on a pair of numbers. Also present on the recording are strings, woodwinds, Spanish guitar and a bunch of instruments that I've either never heard of, or don't know what they sound like, exactly.

Mighty Like A Rose is as challenging, complex and brilliant as its creator. It is an essential chapter in one of the finest ongoing books a pop artist has written.


Tags: Mighty Like A RoseSo Like CandyPlayboy To A ManHarpies BizarreHow To Be DumbThe Other Side Of SummerDirty Dozen Brass BandPaul McCartneyThe BeatlesMy Aim Is TrueThis Year's ModelArmed ForcesThe Sex PistolsNever Mind The BollocksThe ClashGraham ParkerBob DylanBlood On The Tracks

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Durham Herald-Sun, July 7, 1991


Ron Gregory reviews Mighty Like A Rose.

Images

1991-07-07 Durham Herald-Sun page B5 clipping 01.jpg
Clipping.

Page scan.
1991-07-07 Durham Herald-Sun page B5.jpg

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