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Costello's new release a 'mixed blessing'
Tom Carroll
Elvis Costello And The Attractions
Armed Forces
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The new king's third and latest album is a bit of a mixed blessing. On the one hand, Armed Forces is saturated with pop-rock par excellence. Every song is destined to be a classic (watch out, Billy Joel) if the radio stations continue their heavy airplay. Not since his first, My Aim Is True, has Elvis hit so consistently. But on the other hand, this new record is so clean and commercially viable in its production that it seems to suggest the El is being sucked into the system he once so vehemently reviled.
Granted, Elvis Costello was always the most MOR of the New Wavers in sound but he certainly shared the movement's angry sentiments, more than making up for what he lacked in musical harshness with his quick cutting anti-hegemonous lyrics. The mellow Costello has lost almost all of that bitterness also on Armed Forces; indeed, the lp closes with a cover of producer Nick Lowe's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding." The song bears that contagious quality of all of Lowe's tunes and Elvis and the boys play it with more commitment than any other track on this record.
Elvis has subdued, but fortunately without undermining his penchant for writing and performing some of the best material of late-'70s rock. Perhaps this album should have been titled after a tune on Elvis' first lp, "I'm Not Angry (Anymore)."
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Clipping.
Photo by Tom Carroll.
Page scan.
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