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At first glance he looks like the winner of a Buddy Holly look-alike contest, but he's Elvis Costello, a part of the "New Wave" in music. Costello is softer than the other punks but don't confuse softer with timid — he isn't. He recently told a rock journalist that his songs are motivated by "revenge and guilt."
Costello is described as the prima donna of the punks. He will often stop a performance if something is not as he wants it. On his first album, My Aim Is True, Costello sings as if his life depends on it. He also uses phrasing, stops, and other musical effects to influence his songs.
"Mystery Dance" is probably the strongest song on the album. It uses dead stops, Jerry Lee Lewis style piano playing, and an excellent guitar solo by Costello to produce a powerful force behind the lyrics. Costello is trying to explain the lack of understanding and frustration of sex:
"Well I remember when the lights went out
And I was trying to make it look like it was never in doubt
She thought that I knew and I thought that she knew
Both of us were willing
But we didn't know how to do it
Why don't you tell me about the mystery dance...
Costello's political stance is obvious after hearing "Less than Zero." The subject is Oswald Mosley, a leader of the pro-Hitler Union of Fascists in the '30's and popular today with racist and the Fascist National Front in England. The statement made by Costello in "Less than Zero" is if he and his kind have a place here, then I don't.
A softer Costello appears in "Alison," a sexy ballad, while the remainder of the album is composed of typical Costello, with a few standouts such as "Waiting for the End of the World" and "Watching the Detectives." "Watching the Detectives" is characterized by the feeling that Elvis is performing with a gun at his head. In "Waiting for the End of the World" he makes one important statement while looking at people and their religions: "Dear Lord I sincerely hope you're coming cause you really started some thing."
Elvis Costello's My Aim is True is excellent. He has something important to tell and he has a new and better way to do it.
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