Hartford Courant, December 13, 1981

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Almost Blue

Elvis Costello And The Attractions

Charles McCollum

On paper, it must have looked like a real swell idea.

With Elvis Costello at the top of his creative powers and with his obvious indebtedness to country artists like Hank Williams and George Jones, it must have seemed like a natural to put the British New Waver into a Nashville studio with a country producer. He could reprise a couple of classics, and maybe toss in a new tune or two, since he has done some creditable country writing on songs like "Stranger in the House."

Like far too many "inspirations" in popular music, this one went wildly awry somewhere along the line and the final product comes out as the worst Costello album ever and a major let-down after his magnificent Trust, released earlier this year.

Mistakes — big mistakes — were made on Almost Blue even before Costello entered the studio.

The biggest may have been enlisting Billy Sherrill as producer. Sherrill almost single-handedly created what is called "the Nashville sound" — the over-produced, overly pop-oriented style of production which can turn any solid country vocalist into a whimpering simp.

Sherrill brings absolutely nothing to the Almost Blue project except his usual heavy production baggage — strings on an Elvis Costello album? come on — and Costello should have known enough to stick with his regular producer, Nick Lowe, or go with someone more in tune with traditional country like Rodney Crowell.

Then there's the problem of the Attractions, even with the addition of pedal-steel player John McFee from the Doobie Brothers. The Attractions are a solid rock band but they are in over their heads on Almost Blue. Picking up a backup band like Willie Nelson's Family or Emmylou Harris' Hot Band would have been a much better idea.

And finally, there is Costello himself. As much as he is indebted to singers like Jones for his vocal style, he cannot take a thoroughly wretched piece of music like "Brown to Blue" and make it work like Jones did. Worse, he insists upon trying to handle uptempo country numbers like Merle Haggard's "Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down" when he would have much better off borrowing some mid-tempo tunes and ballads from the likes of Nelson and Crowell.

One should, I suppose, credit Costello for taking the risk of trying this album just as he was getting up some commercial momentum from Trust. Certainly, you're not going to hear a lot of cuts from this album on either rock or country radio.

Still, the project should have been approached with more thought and with more concern for Costello's limitations. Almost Blue could have been an intriguing exercise in music-making instead of an almost total flop.

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Hartford Courant, December 13, 1981


Charles McCollum reviews Almost Blue.

Images

1981-12-13 Hartford Courant page G6 clipping 01.jpg
Clipping.

Page scan.
1981-12-13 Hartford Courant page G6.jpg

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