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While Young has stripped his music down to the rudiments, Costello has substantially embellished his once-lean sound. As a result, Costello's new album, Punch the Clock, sometimes seems stodgy. The problem is the injudicious pile-up of horn arrangements, whether or not they're appropriate to the songs.
Some of the Costello arrangements harken back to 1960s rhythm and blues. In fact, on the opening song, "Let Them All Talk," Costello takes a chunk out of an Otis Redding song, just as Billy Joel does. "Listening to the sad song that the radio plays / Have we come this fa-fa-fa to find a soul cliche?" Costello sings. The reference is to Otis Redding's "Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)." But while Joel's horn players steal with clarity and presence, Costello's brass sounds dim-witted.
Otherwise noteworthy songs such as "T.K.O. (Boxing Day)" are marred by overbusy, unimaginative arrangements, while the otherwise gripping "Shipbuilding" comes close to being sunk by a trumpet line that recalls the mediocre English jazzman Acker Bilk.
Those major caveats aside, there's some commendable material on Punch the Clock. The writing and vocals on "Shipbuilding" are quite powerful — it's like Nina Simone singing about the Falklands War. "Charm School" is both pretty and cutting, though Costello no longer wears the song's misogynistic pose as well as he once did. He's more compelling when he takes some responsibility for his sexual anger, as he does on "Mouth Almighty," in which he sings: "I used to shoot my mouth off / 'Till you'd had enough of me... if you didn't believe me / Why did you have to leave me / With my mouth almighty."
There are glimmers of Costello's past consistency on "Love Went Mad," which bursts with melodic exhilaration, and "The Greatest Thing," which makes a convincing argument for love without marriage. Unfortunately, someone should have told Costello that the sound of Punch the Clock is not always the best suitor for its songs.
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