Moods For Moderns, March 1981

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Moods For Moderns

Fanzines

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Trust

Elvis Costello

Gwynne Garfinkle

What happened, Elvis? From 1977-79, you wrote some of the most thought-provoking yet vicious lyrics this side of Dylan and Lennon. What's more, you and the Attractions always delivered musically, whether with the egghead rockabilly of My Aim Is True, the psychotic organ sound of This Year's Model, or the pure pop for repressed people of Armed Forces. Then, in 1980, Get Happy!! showed you "toning down" slightly. The life-on-the-line edge was not so apparent anymore, but the lyrics were still bitter and poignant, the music tight as ever. And at the end of the same year, Taking Liberties revealed to the uninitiated that your B-sides and outtakes (especially the savage "Clean Money") equalled your other tracks.

So what went wrong? For the first time on a Costello LP, we have some real duds! Case in point: the downhome honky-tonk of "Different Finger." Come on, Elvis, we know you can do better than that. "Radio Sweetheart" and "Stranger In the House" were influenced by good country artists like George Jones and Jim Reeves, while this reeks of Conway Twitty (or should I say twit). You even quote "Stranger In the House" at the end of "Different Finger," so I know you haven't forgotten what to do!

Another real clunker is "New Lace Sleeves," which positively reeks of M.O.R. boredom. Is this crooner really the some guy who sang "Little Triggers" as though he'd break down the next second?

Then we come to the bulk of the LP, relatively good songs. Among these are "Watch Your Step" (sounding uncannily like "Secondary Modern" from Get Happy!!), "Luxembourg" (weird rockabilly that doesn't hold a candle to "Mystery Dance"), the poignant "Shot With His Own Gun," and the thumping, Bo Diddley rhythm of "Lovers Walk." Yes, these songs are pretty good, but the spark just is not there. Compared to any track on Elvis' other records, they just don't stand up.

Now for the good stuff: four songs (count 'em, four out of the LP's 14) on Side One of Trust are proof that E.C. is working on a new style that could work as well as the old. "Clubland" (the single that preceded the album), "Pretty Words," "Strict Time," and especially "You'll Never Be a Man" remind me of nothing so much as the best Burt Bacharach-Hal David compositions. Don't laugh! Elvis once covered Bacharach-David's "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself." These four songs have the same graceful, mournful melodies, along with typical, ironic Elvis lyrics. If Costello could do a whole LP of songs like these, I could forgive him for losing that seething anger that used to permeate every song.

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Moods For Moderns, No. 7, March 1981


Gwynne Garfinkle reviews Trust.

Images

1981-03-00 Moods For Moderns page 09.jpg
Page scan.

Cover.
1981-03-00 Moods For Moderns cover.jpg

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