Sioux Falls Argus Leader, March 13, 1980

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Sioux Falls Argus Leader

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Elvis: Crowning a new king of rock


Marshall Fine

I remember clearly the first time I heard Elvis Costello.

I was sitting in my apartment in Jackson, Miss., in late 1977; the radio was on and I was reading the paper, not really listening.

Then a song came on — exploded across the airwaves, if you will — that grabbed my ears and my attention. It was a burst of jumping, frenetic rock: "Welcome to the Working Week," a minute and 57 seconds that injected vitality into what had been a dreary afternoon of soft, schlock rock. When the disc jockey identified the singer as Elvis Costello, I made a note to myself to get his album.

It was one of those moments that sticks with you, when you're exposed to an artist whose energy, talent and vision are immediately apparent. In the midst of the raw, self-destructive punk movement that died so quickly that year, here was a man with an idea that combined the best of the old and the new. As it turned out, with that album and the two that followed, I had found a new source of rock inspiration.

Costello has yet to let his fans down. Each of his three albums has been better than the last; as a friend of mine put it, "He's one of those people whose album I'll buy without hearing it first." Linda Ronstadt, who has recorded four of his songs, said in her Playboy interview that Costello is writing the best new material in rock today.

Punk rock has come and gone but Elvis Costello has persevered. He's still hitting the mark with his fourth album, recently released, entitled Get Happy!! (Columbia JC 36347).

This album is a Costello bonanza: 20 new songs (of which 18 are Costello originals), only four of which run longer than two-and-a-half minutes.

With his band, The Attractions, Costello has created two-score tunes that bite, snarl and snap. These are bitter love songs, written from a cynical standpoint of a man whose heart has been trod upon frequently.

The variety of musical styles is impressive. Costello can handle a bouncing Memphis soul-tune ("I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down"), shift gears into a menacing reggae ("Human Touch"), then slide into a shimmering waltz ("New Amsterdam").

In between, he offers driving, savage tunes filled with his clever wordplay. Costello is the master of the rock miniature, slashing songs that slam home their point in a brief span.

His double entendres sting with their multiple meanings; in "Motel Matches," Costello's attempt at a country song, he offers images of both cheapness and indiscretion when he describes his paramour's fickleness in two brief, telling lines: "Falling out of your pocketbook / Giving you away like motel matches."

His other images are equally pungent. In "B Movie," he sings: "Everyone is on the make / It's not your heart I'd like to break."

Nick Lowe's production is crisp and varied, bringing to mind the organ-dominated sound of the mid-1960s. Yet Lowe tends to bury Costello's vocals in the mix. As a result, the listener must make several passes at a song to catch all the words.

If there's a complaint to be made about this and other Costello albums, it's the lack of a lyric sheet to go with the album. Costello is a superior songwriter and his lyrics are an integral part of his appeal; thus, it's frustrating not to be able to make ready reference to them.

That's quibbling, however, when taken in the context of a superb album. As noted, it takes several listenings to get all the lyrics; but Elvis Costello's Get Happy!! is worth the effort and will probably inspire that kind of listening time anyway.



Tags: Get Happy!!Welcome To The Working WeekLinda RonstadtPlayboy interviewThe AttractionsMemphis soul-tuneI Can't Stand Up For Falling DownHuman TouchNew AmsterdamMotel MatchesB MovieNick Lowe

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Argus Leader, March 13, 1980


Marshall Fine profiles Elvis Costello and reviews Get Happy!!.

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1980-03-13 Sioux Falls Argus Leader page 1B clipping 01.jpg
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1980-03-13 Sioux Falls Argus Leader page 1B.jpg 1980-03-13 Sioux Falls Argus Leader page 2b.jpg 1980-03-13 Sioux Falls Argus Leader page 2b clipping 01.jpg

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