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Elvis comes clean
No 1
At last The Imposter comes clean! This week Elvis Costello releases a single under his own name, a follow-up to "Pills And Soap" and a taster for the forthcoming album Punch The Clock, released on July 29. The single is entitled "Everyday I Write The Book" and is backed by "Heathen Town," a song not on the album.
Single and album are on the F-Beat label, now licensed to RCA, and produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley of Madness and Dexys fame.
Punch The Clock includes a version of "Pills And Soap" and Costello's own reading of the song he and Langer wrote for Robert Wyatt, "Shipbuilding." By all reports, Elvis' new material owes something to the soul vein of the earlier Get Happy album and will be followed by some live dates with the Attractions later this year.
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Clippings.
Everyday I Write The Book
Elvis Costello And The Attractions
Phil McNeill
How does an Angry Young Man grow up?
Obviously Elvis Costello can't keep spitting vitriol like "I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea" when in rock terms he's nearly a pensioner, but his low-key '80s image just doesn't excite us record-buyers.
It's taken the radical politics and radical musical departures of Robert Wyatt's "Shipbuilding" and The Imposter's "Pills And Soap" to drag him back into fashion.
So now Elvis tries again with a more familiar sound. "Everyday I Write The Book" is a clever, wordy song set to a stiflingly tight soul rhythm. Like much of Elvis' recent material, it's very good but very boring.
Six months ago it wouldn't have got a sniff at the charts. Now it should get to number eight.
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Cover and page scans.
Chart pages.
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External links