Simon Fraser University Peak, May 15, 1986

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Simon Fraser University Peak

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King Of America

The Costello Show

Ron Yamauchi

The poet-assassin of contemporary English pop returns from voluntary exile, augmenting the wincing clarity of his vision with the faint twitches of an honest-to-God smile. Dismissing his last three years' efforts as benighted attempts at Top-40 playlisting, the renewed Declan Patrick MacManus sheds the names and mannerisms that have defined and trapped him as Elvis Costello.

The chords are now simple. The pain that once pushed defensive rage into polysyllabic daggers is now balanced by the generosity of an experienced wisdom. The result is an album rich in folk, country, and blues influences, that acknowledges emotional traps before falling into them. There are also silly songs about Coca-Cola and hangovers. When things threaten to numb with lovesickness, some lick by the session cast (Presley's TCB Band, jazz god Ray Brown, producer T Bone Burnett, among others) rescues the momentum.

This is the thirteenth, and therefore omen-filled, official release of MacManus' career. At 31, his reborn emotional acuity, coupled with the recent reforming of the savage Attractions (with Nick Lowe producing), could catapult him back into the forefront of critical and commercial acclaim, the position rightfully earned, and lost in the first flush of New Wave. Elvis is dead. Again. Long may he live.

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The Peak, May 15-21, 1986


Ron Yamauchi reviews King Of America.

Images

1986-05-15 Simon Fraser University Peak page 07 clipping 01.jpg
Clipping.

1986-05-15 Simon Fraser University Peak page 07.jpg
Page scan.

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