|
"You'd better have your fun before it moves along, You're already looking for another fool like me." — Living In Paradise
This year would seem to be about 1965 if the title's anything to go by — more likely it just happens to fit rather nicely into the Radar sales campaign for this record. That Costello should sell lots of vinyl is undisputed — put at its most basic he writes good songs and tunes, and that is something that should not go unnoticed. That the public are going to be given the chance not to notice Costello is not only open to dispute — it's well nigh impossible. But what of the music, which is, after all, the most important part (isn't it?).
A lot of people will have been sitting on the edge of anticipation for this record, for two main reasons. The most obvious of the two is to see if Costello can still cut it after the excellent debut album, My Aim Is True; the second is to get an LP-long chance to hear The Attractions, the backing band conspicuous by their absence from My Aim (rumours circulated at the time that it was the Rumour sans Graham Parker backing Elv on that; now it seems that it was in fact Clover providing the necessary plink-plonk).
The Attractions are bassist Bruce Thomas (ex-Quiver), drummer Pete Thomas (no relation and ex-Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers and a stint with John Stewart), and keyboardist Steve Naive (no idea where he's from). Together they play ridiculously well on this album, carving a neo-midsixties track through the centre of Costello's artful lyrics, always selecting just the correct balance between melodic invention and past reference points to conjure up a new and driving backcloth for Elvis' set-pieces. Take the first track, "No Action" — the power of the intro is a joy to behold, insisting that you listen, perking up even the most lazy of ears. The cheap organ sound that permeates the album is present here, the obvious comparison is to Ray Manzarek's currently re-fashionable mode — this year's mode, you might say.
The bass, too, is impeccable throughout — Bruce Thomas achieves an enviable bulbous throb of a sound that's elastic and fluid, merging at times so closely with the drum sound that it defies examination, becoming part of a well-ordered slab of rhythm. A stunning example of this empathy between the two Thomases is the intro to "Pump It Up" — a mesh of bass and drums guaranteed to launch even the weakest song into stabbing rhythmical ecstasy.
But Costello's songs are far from weak. His observations and incisive perceptions of modern life grow with each listening — take "This Year's Girl," for example. It's a put-down, really, of blank acceptance of certain values — that the values under the magnifying glass in this instance happen to be the marketing of fashion-consciousness and its related consumer exploitation fits in with other songs included here: "Lipstick Vogue" is probably a more hopeful angle to this subject than it seems at first. The whole record is crammed full of short, sharp chunks of music that will doubtless have Radar people arguing long into the night over which track to release as this month's single. In the meantime, I s'pose we have to be content with this year's album.
|
