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Goodbye Cruel World
Elvis Costello and the Attractions
Richard Defendorf
 
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More often than not, Elvis Costello can match his extraordinary musical curiosity with his songwriting. He has the facility to imitate and interpret just about any style he hears and then give it meaning with some well-chosen words. If there is a drawback to such breadth of knowledge, it's that Costello tries to cram it all onto one album. Or so it sounds on Goodbye Cruel World. Costello dabbles in pop cliches on "The Only Flame in Town" (Daryl Hall sings here!), high drama on "Home Truth," reggae-ska on "Room with No Number," middle-of-the-road soul on "I Wanna Be Loved" and hard rock on "The Deportees Club."
The lyrics to these songs are often clever, and the Attractions follow Costello's frequent changes in mood with dogged persistence. The problem is that this mix of moods and idiomatic meanderings makes the album sound cluttered. The clearest thinking on the record in fact comes from two songs composed by Farnell Jenkins — the protest ballad "Peace in Our Time" and "I Wanna Be Loved." Make no mistake, though, there are plenty of goodies here of Costello's own doing. Your best bet is to pick and choose, depending on your mood.
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