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This collection of 14 highly original Costello tunes is the third impressive album by rock's leading light within the last 13 months.
You'd expect someone tearing through material at that rate to spin his wheels a bit. The very impressive quality about Costello is that he still comes away from whatever latest tangent he's into with tunes worth their weight in platinum.
Trust is one of (maybe?) the best set of tunes he's put onto record. In contrast to the anti-commercial, piqued attitude found throughout the last two (Taking Liberties and Get Happy!!), Trust runs closer in form to the first three Costello LPs.
He's also added the talents of Squeeze's Glenn Tilbrook on one cut and the guitar work of Rumour guitarist Martin Belmont and above-average engineering to produce the best sounding disc he's ever done.
The sense of a self-enclosed, viciously sarcastic Costello persona has also taken a softening here. He's still largely self-enclosed in a constant, mythical I-vs.-You struggle, but he's more thoughtful, less sarcastic.
You can count always on three or four perfect stabs at social conditions: media scandalmongers in "New Lace Sleeves" ("Even presidents have newspaper lovers, While ministers go creeping under covers / She's no angel, he's no saint, we're all covered up in whitewash and greasepaint") and wife beating in "White Knuckles" ("White knuckles on black and blue skin, You don't have to take it so you just give in")
He's here to stay, and as long as he continues putting as much time and effort into his tunes (an exception to the success syndrome), we should be thankful.
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