Kalamazoo News, December 24, 1980

From The Elvis Costello Wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
... Bibliography ...
727677787980818283
848586878889909192
939495969798990001
020304050607080910
111213141516171819
202122232425 26 27 28


Kalamazoo News

Michigan publications

US publications by state
  • ALAKARAZCA
  • COCTDCDEFL
  • GAHI   IA      ID      IL
  • IN   KSKYLA   MA
  • MDME   MIMNMO
  • MSMTNC  ND  NE
  • NHNJNMNVNY
  • OHOKORPARI
  • SCSDTNTXUT
  • VAVTWAWIWY

-

Costello’s aim remains true on latest album


Robert E. Post

Leave it to Elvis Costello to come up with an anti-Greatest Hits package. But that's just what the misanthrope Costello has done in Taking Liberties, a collection of material from 1977-1980 unavailable on albums released in America.

Despite his own prodigious output and the cover versions of his songs by Linda Ronstadt, Dave Edmunds, and Carlene Curter, Costello has never had a hit single in the U.S. — although both his version of "Alison" and Ronstadt's cover came close.

Taking Liberties is just as dense as last spring's Get Happy!! Both single disc LPs hit the listener with 20 tunes in less than 50 minutes.

On his first three albums, Costello machine-gunned witty turns of phrase through armored car musical arrangements. Since Costello has, if anything, stepped up the pacing on his last two, ten-songs-per-side LPs, the listener is apt to feel caught in the middle of a demolition derby track, a crash course in musical hooks and turns of phrase. There is a lot happening on these albums, and one wants to step hack for an overview.

Because it spans four years and was never intended as an integrated album, Taking Liberties is a mixed bag: B-sides of singles, British album tracks, out-takes from Get Happy!!, studio experiments, and Costello's own versions of songs covered by other performers.

Versions of songs from Get Happy!! include "Clean Money," which is a fine retread of "Love for Tender," and slower arrangements of "Clown Time Is Over" and "Black and White World." The slower tempo on "Clown Time Is Over" makes for a haunting song, but "Black and White World" is dragged down by its country and western handling, rather pale in view of the feisty, funky version released earlier.

Costello does much better with country music on "Radio Sweetheart," a sprightly country swing, and "Stranger in the House," a classic sounding tear-jerker.

"Getting Mighty Crowded Around Here" is a rhythm and blues shouter along the lines of "I Stand Accused" and "High Fidelity" from Get Happy!!

Other standout cuts include "I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea" with its jangling, hypnotic guitar riff, "Crawling To the U.S.A.," with some Beach Boy style harmonies, the piano ballad "Just a Memory," and Costello's cover of the Rodgers & Hart chestnut "My Funny Valentine."

On the other hand, neither "Hoover Factory" nor "Dr. Luther's Assistant" works for me. The folk-psychedelia of "Hoover Factory" and the phasing and tape loop effects of "Dr. Luther's Assistant" make these tracks sound like out-takes from the Sgt. Pepper's era that would have done well to stay missing.

Costello takes more than a few liberties with his fans on his latest release. Some of the tracks don't work. Most of them do. All are interesting. And Costello's aim is true enough on Taking Liberties to hit the mark.

-

Kalamazoo News, December 24-31, 1980


Robert E. Post reviews Taking Liberties.

Images

1980-12-24 Kalamazoo News page 12 clipping 01.jpg
Clipping.


Page scan.
1980-12-24 Kalamazoo News page 12.jpg

-



Back to top

External links