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Armed Forces
Elvis Costello
Playboy
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Who would have thought? Who would have thought? He has the stage presence and aspect of a Buddy Holly quaking through a psychotic attack. His name sounds as if it had been cooked up on Saturday Night Live. But Elvis Costello has become one of the most important true rockers of the waning Seventies — if not in almighty platinum dollars, certainly in terms of freshness and talent. And he shows no signs of running out of steam. Armed Forces (Columbia), his third album, is right there with the first two. It was, like the others, produced by sometime Rockpiler Nick Lowe. The production is lusher than previously, but the sound still maintains that edge that defines Costello's music. The lyrics are sharp and imagistic ("Two little Hitlers will fight it out till / One little Hitler does the other one's will"). Our main complaint about the album, in fact, is that some of the vocals are mixed too low to hear clearly, even through headphones, which is a waste, given how good they are. No immediate grabbers here, but after a few times through, you'll find chunks of it jumping unbidden into your brain — and you won't mind a bit.
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