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Elvis Costello has always been an easy target for analysis. Unfortunately, once you try to examine his psyche through his records and his actions, you find he defies explanation.
Let's start with the title of the new album by Costello and his Attractions. It is Get Happy!! (Columbia), but what really does that mean? Is it an admonition for his fans to "get happy?" Or does it tell us that Elvis Costello and the Attractions "get happy" after the British singer/songwriter has made a career thus far out of being dour, angry and down on his luck?
I'm not really certain, but listening to Get Happy!! does not lend the impression that Costello has a new outlook on life. His old themes — infidelity, failed romances, screwed up relationships, distrust and what he believes is a continuing bias by the world toward him remain on this long playing LP.
If Costello is still not happy with his perception of how the world treats him, then I'm not altogether pleased with his treatment of his fans.
On his three previous albums, the Briton showed a flair for both lyrics and melody that very few performers have equalled. It seems, however, that on the new record he and longtime producer Nick Lowe have gotten too adventurous. We are presented with 20 songs (that's twice as many as on the average single album) and a variety of styles, some of them new and different to Costello.
Perhaps Elvis can be accused of trying to bite off more than he can chew. There are a lot of average Costello songs here, and those could easily have been avoided without diminishing from his better work.
The singer tries hard rock, r&b, ballads, pop and arty rock, plus variations on styles — and his tempos are mixed and varied. But, unlike his first three records, Get Happy!! never hits a groove or leaves a solid mood on which to build. The good songs seem to end too soon; the poorer ones, despite the two minute-average playing time, seem strained.
Costello the tune writer has been much better. The hooks on this album don't hold as fast as on previous work, and his occasional habit of using other performers' riffs gets annoying. When you're as a good a songwriter as Costello, your work is expected to remain consistently top-notch. Still, below quality Elvis is better than the best work of most of the other singer/songwriters around today.
I'm also displeased with Costello the wordsmith. First of all, why can't he include his lyrics with the album? For a person who prides himself on words, he makes it difficult to follow his thinking, especially since his singing style is so varied on Get Happy!! His words are sometimes indecipherable.
Those that are understandable lead us to the realization that his themes are the same as always, as I said earlier. Unfortunately, his words don't have the sharp, smart or smugly cute tones that we've heard before. Instead, Costello resorts more and more to plays on words and unusual phrases and rhymes that sound nice but may not have much meaning. He does connect on a few, though, especially on the song "Possession":
"You lack lust, you're so lackluster.
Is that all the strength you can muster'?"
Costello succeeds the best on two non-originals with r&b flavor: "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down" and "I Stand Accused." Of his originals, his two slowest numbers are by far his best songs.
"New Amsterdam," described by one reviewer as a "waltz," has what can be termed a beautiful melody. But most impressive is "Riot Act," on which he pleads with a woman not to dump him. This song contains his most impassioned singing we have yet heard.
So, as long as the flame still burns, Costello is capable of making incomparable music. That's at least one thing to get happy about.
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