Melody Maker, November 19, 1994

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


Melody Maker

-

Elvis Costello & The Attractions


Andrew Mueller

Shepherd's Bush Empire, London

On the strength of the oddly unconvincing Brutal Youth album and an embarrassingly feeble performance at the Albert Hall back in July — I was hailing a cab inside 30 minutes — I'd come tonight prepared to inter Costello and his reconstituted Attractions in the elderly pub rockers' graveyard. The review in my head was an obituary for one of the most brilliant careers in the rock pantheon.

However. One of Costello's most treasurable traits has always been that he's roughly as predictable as a cornered mongoose. The first words we get from him tonight are "I want you," introducing a seething version of the song of the same name which induces a feeling much like having your heart removed from your chest with a spoon, and ends with an apoplectic assault on his fretboard. This is much more like it. "No Action" follows, rolling back the years of maverick eclecticism to reveal the bespectacled puff adder who recorded the still-stunning This Year's Model.

It's this album that anchors tonight's show. Most of the songs turn up somewhere, and Messrs Thomas, Thomas and Nieve more than live up to the peerless, bare-knuckled savagery of the recordings. Indeed, they frequently transcend it — Nieve romps around "I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea" like an amphetamine imp and the rhythm section on "Lipstick Vogue," "Pump It Up" and "You Belong To Me" are as coolly violent as, say, an advancing armour division or Hristo Stoichkov.

For the rest, the selections from Brutal Youth are altogether more palatable, mustering the clenched-throat claustrophobia missing from a distinctly passionless album: "Rocking Horse Road" and "My Science Fiction Twin" may take extra deep bows. They reclaim a few they've given away ("Girls Talk," which still has the greatest opening line to any song ever; versions of "Basement Kiss" and "Puppet Girl" from Wendy James' solo record). They rediscover the overwrought joys of "Beyond Belief" and "Human Hands." Basically, they play two hours from an extraordinary' songbook as if they've got rifles trained on them from the wings, and it's fucking marvellous.

Possibly I have been suckered by an easy exercise in nostalgia. And there's no denying that Brutal Youth, aside from being his most underwhelming album since Goodbye Cruel World, was a peculiarly pedestrian, crowd-pleasing idea with which to follow the dark, difficult delights of the two beard-era albums and the audacious, gorgeous Juliet Letters. So perhaps this tour is just a chance for Costello to find his bearings, do what he knows he can do until he works out what to do next.

But whatever the background, on this kind of form, there are few things I am currently happier about than the fact he's doing three more shows here this month. See you down the front.


Tags: Shepherd's Bush EmpireLondonThe AttractionsBrutal YouthAlbert HallI Want YouNo ActionThis Year's ModelBruce ThomasPete ThomasSteve Nieve(I Don't Want To Go To) ChelseaPump It UpLipstick VogueYou Belong To MeRocking Horse RoadMy Science Fiction TwinGirls TalkBasement KissPuppet GirlWendy JamesNow Ain't The Time For Your TearsBeyond BeliefHuman HandsGoodbye Cruel WorldThe Juliet Letters

-
<< >>

Melody Maker, November 19, 1994


Andrew Mueller reviews Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Friday, November 4, 1994, Shepherd's Bush Empire, London.

Images

1994-11-19 Melody Maker page 20 clipping 01.jpg
Clipping.


Photo by Mark Stringer.
1994-11-19 Melody Maker photo 01 ms.jpg


Cover and page scan.
1994-11-19 Melody Maker cover.jpg 1994-11-19 Melody Maker page 20.jpg

-



Back to top

External links