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Punch The Clock
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
David Zeiler
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Every time Elvis Costello releases a great album, it makes his abilities and previous accomplishments seem all the more awesome. Punch the Clock, Costello's latest opus, is his easiest album to listen to since Armed Forces. The music, on the whole, is punchier than on last year's lush Imperial Bedroom. Costello achieves this high impact sound by stripping most of the record's songs to a minimum number of instruments. His judicious use of the TKO Horns spike several of the tunes in just the right places.
Although every song is good, a few stand out in particular. "Pills and Soap" features an ominous piano melody over a mechanical handclap rhythm, while he sings, "Give us our daily bread in individual slices / And something in the daily rag to cancel any crisis."
The poet in Costello is as ornery and as witty as ever. In "Every Day I Write the Book," a sarcastic ballad' about a cheating girlfriend, Costello sings, "Don't tell me you don't know what love is / When you're old enough to know better / When you find strange hands in your sweater."
If there ever is a Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, Elvis Costello will most assuredly be in it.
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Page scan.
Photo by Nick Knight.
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