Fayetteville Observer, April 2, 1993

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Elvis Costello strings together a winner


Rodger Mullen

Elvis Costello and The Brodsky Quartet
The Juliet Letters

This album seemed like the ultimate conceit, something out of This Is Spinal Tap — English New Wave pioneer pens a song cycle with a... string quartet?

I was prepared to dislike The Juliet Letters, Elvis Costello's collaboration with The Brodsky Quartet. And on first listen, my suspicions were confirmed — Mr. Costello's thin, sandpapery voice seemed laughably out of place against the plaintive strains of violin, cello, viola and violincello.

But I admit, the album grew on me. Mr. Costello's material (almost all of it co-written with the Brodskys) is as strong as ever, and by working with a classical quartet, he has effectively eliminated the instrumental clutter that bogged down his two most recent albums, Spike and Mighty Like a Rose.

Inspired by a newspaper story about a Veronese professor who answered letters to Juliet (as in Romeo and...), the album is about, well, mail — love letters, suicide notes, junk mail, you name it. More specifically, it's about the human emotions and motives that spur the correspondence.

The album opens with a mood-setting instrumental, "Deliver Us" (get it?). Any doubts that this classical foray has mellowed Mr. Costello are dispelled by the third track, "Swine" — "You're a swine and I'm saying that's an insult to the pig," he snarls in his poison-pen voice.

But don't assume the most caustic lines and barbed melodies are Mr. Costello's — "As I have found with other collaborations, the music that you most confidently attribute to one party invariably turns out to be the work of the person you least suspect," the singer warns in the liner notes.

Indeed, on the song that most resembles Mr. Costello's earlier work — the catchy "Jacksons, Monk and Rowe" — Mr. Costello has only a lyric co-writing credit. The music is credited to quartet member Michael Thomas.

"This Offer Is Unrepeatable" will delight any fan of Mr. Costello's wicked wordplay. In a slew of words he details a junk-mail pitch with a sinister edge — "Would I lie to you? Would I sell you a dud? Just sign on the line. Could you possibly write it in blood?" he sneers.

Clocking in at more than an hour, this mailbag of letters is stuffed a bit too full, especially for an audience not attuned to classical music. But Mr. Costello's fans will be glad to know that the man and his music continue to evolve.


Tags: The Juliet LettersThe Brodsky QuartetMichael ThomasVeronaJuliet CapuletDeliver UsSwineJacksons, Monk And RoweThis Offer Is UnrepeatableSpinal TapSpikeMighty Like A Rose

Copyright 1993 The Fayetteville Observer

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Fayetteville Observer, April 2, 1993


Rodger Mullen reviews The Juliet Letters.


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