New Musical Express, March 4, 1978

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NME

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The man Costello does it again!


Charles Shaar Murray

Elvis Costello & The Attractions
(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea

The whole business is beginning to make me feel faintly sick. I mean, how Elvis Costello can just sit around making an apparently endless supply of records that are plainly and simply better than everybody else's except The Ramones and Muddy Waters is just beyond me. This single's so good that the very act of releasing it amounts to bragging on a colossal scale.

Cases: a dark, chunky rhythm track, Steve Naive's by-now-patented Garth Hudson lifts (check out Dylan's live version of "All Along The Watchtower" from the Flood double), spiky, angry guitar interpolations from The Man Costello, a mordant insinuating vocal and the Nick Lowe production to end all Nick Lowe productions (fat chance).

The song is a veritable blinder: a nightmare vision of the Swinging London of the mid-'60s — and, by extension, now — with imagery drawn from Blow Up and Smashing Time. The line "Call her Natasha but she looks like Elsie" is a direct reference to that latter movie, a hideous exploitation flick starring Lynn Redgrave, Rita Tushingham and Michael York.

Put it this way: Nick Kent bet anyone in the office a fiver that "Chelsea" would make top five and no-one would take him up on it. If Radar can maintain the standards set by their releases thus far, they should reign as unchallenged in their field as Costello does in his.


Tags: (I Don't Want To Go To) ChelseaThe AttractionsNick LoweJake Riviera(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea (single)Steve NaiveLive StiffsMuddy WatersGarth HudsonBob DylanRadar



Teasers


NME

page 59 - Teasers

New Musical Express, March 4, 1978 - Teasers includes brief mentions of Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe and Jake Riviera.


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New Musical Express, March 4, 1978


Charles Shaar Murray reviews "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea," which is named Single Of The Week; a ½-page ad for the single runs on page 19.


Teasers includes brief mentions of Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe and Jake Riviera.


Nick Lowe's Jesus Of Cool is "bubbling under" on the album chart (page 2).


Also includes a full page ad for Live Stiffs.

Images

page 23 clippingpage 19 (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea ad
Clipping and advertisement.


Live Stiffs advertisement.
page 6 - Live Stiffs advertisement


Cover and page scans.
1978-03-04 New Musical Express cover.jpg page 2 - charts page 27 - singles


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