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Elvis Costello has never been known as a guy who stands still. Since 1984's Goodbye Cruel World, he has legally changed his name back to his original Declan Patrick MacManus, and he's split up with his wife of 10 years. On this album he only uses his regular band, The Attractions, for one song. Instead he turns to L.A. producer T Bone Burnett and the melange of musicians he has recruited, including members of Elvis Presley's final band, veteran studio drummer Jim Keltner plus the 60-year-old jazz-rhythm section of Ray Brown and Earl Palmer. The result is a more varied Costello album, one that allows him to show more hills and valleys as a vocalist than ever before.
On "Eisenhower Blues," when he's not screaming hysterically, Costello sounds Dylanesque. On the next song, "Poisoned Rose," he uses a slow jazz background to create a song about an anguished lover in which you can feel the pain. His fascination with country music continues. With the Elvis crew he punches out a country raveup called "The Big Light," and he plays a nifty mandolin on a blue-grassy ballad called "Little Palaces."
Costello/MacManus's lyrics are as acerbic as ever. He skewers American society in songs like "Brilliant Mistake," and "Our Little Angel" continues his tradition of being at his most vituperative in love songs: "Now the cabaret is frozen and the laughter comes in cans / And the lonely hearts don't know what to do with their hands / You think that you'll be sweet to her but everybody knows / That you're the marshmallow valentine that got stuck on her clothes."
You could hum along to other Elvis Costello albums and ignore the message: this one can't be brushed aside as easily. It can be an irritating album, but it's the best thing Costello has done in a long time.
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