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Elvis has a new album, Almost Blue, recorded in Nashville and full of country music songs.
That would be good news for Elvis Presley fans, but it is bad news for fans of British New Wave rocker Elvis Costello.
Considering Costello's country songs on previous albums — "Stranger in The House" on Taking Liberties and "Different Finger" on Trust, for instance — there was little reason to doubt he could pull off an entire album's worth. He doesn't, and one problem seems to be that these are not his songs.
Another is the absence of Nick Lowe, producer of most of Costello's previous works. Instead, the producer is Billy Sherrill, who knows country music but not Costello's vocal limitations, which is Problem No. 3. Costello is not the warbler some of these songs require, and his whines sometimes break the album's flow.
Side One opens with Hank Williams' "Why Don't You Love Me (Like You Used to Do)," an upbeat song that fools the listener into thinking more of the same might be just ahead. But "Sweet Dreams" slows the album right down.
Lowe is especially missed on the next two songs — "Success" and "I'm Your Toy" (or "Hot Burrito #1," the song's original title). The first one has the kind of lyrics Costello is known for Success has made a failure of our home — and the second is a Gram Parsons-Chris Ethridge ballad from their Flying Burrito Brothers days that Costello's voice fails. He should have been able to do better.
"Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down," a Merle Haggard song, is lively enough to cover Costello's vocal breaks and has quick rhymes — again much like Costello's own lyrics.
"Brown to Blue," a George Jones song, closes out the first side. Costello could put this song with his own compositions, and it would fit perfectly: "You changed your name from Brown to Jones and mine from Brown to blue."
But these last two songs seemingly suffer from poor recording techniques at various points. "Brown to Blue" is the worst, having an annoying vibration. (The problem was on three copies of the album bought from two Lexington shops.)
Side Two opens with a different promise than Side One's. Jerry Chesnut's "A Good Year for the Roses" is slow and melodic and full of swelling background vocals that sound like something you would hear on a Greatest Country Songs of All Time commercial at 3 in the morning on Channel 17.
"Roses," though, is the only slow song that Costello's voice fits well. But Charlie Rich's "Sittin' and Thinkin'" brings his voice — and our ears — back to reality. Struggling with the too-long phrases, he wails and flails his way through.
Costello rebounds with "Color of the Blues," which sounds reminiscent of "Stranger in the House."
"Too Far Gone" falls into the same trap as "Roses" — those swelling background vocals. But Costello's vocals aren't nearly so good here. "Too Far Gone" was written by Sherrill, the album's producer.
Costello is successful again with "Honey Hush," another song that could fit in — musically with his usual stuff.
"How Much I Lied" by Gram Parsons, closes the album. A bright piano carries Costello through this song, which is not as disappointing as "I'm Your Toy."
Costello's experiment with country music falls somewhere between partial success and partial failure. He has made an adequate album of country music that fits his "girl-leaves-boy" theme; he is especially comfortable with the songs of George Jones, a Costello idol of sorts.
The Attractions, Costello's band, shows its ability to play the country tunes, but it is too often subdued and hidden.
And there's something else that might be disconcerting to Elvis Costello fans: The slow songs allow you to figure out all the lyrics on first listen. In the past, part of the fun of listening to Costello has been trying to decipher what he is saying in that gruff, angry voice.
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