Sydney Morning Herald, January 29, 1979

From The Elvis Costello Wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
... Bibliography ...
727677787980818283
848586878889909192
939495969798990001
020304050607080910
111213141516171819
202122232425 26 27 28


Sydney Morning Herald

Australia publications

Newspapers

Magazines

Online publications


-

Armed Forces

Elvis Costello and the Attractions

Christine Hogan

Elvis Costello (real first name Declan) does his best to de-categorise himself in this, his third album for WEA.

Listeners should not expect simply an aggressive form of New Wave music on this album.

It contains, instead, a distillation of a variety of styles and influences into a rich and various whole.

The WEA spokesman laughingly refers to one of the songs — "Oliver's Army," the single — as Elvis Costello's answer to ABBA.

Although the opening riff sounds suspiciously like an ABBA song, it does develop more intelligently than the relatively mindless melodies so beloved by the Swedish group.

All 12 songs on the album have been penned by Costello, who with this album should emerge as one of the major exponents of rock and roll extant.

There are some excellent tracks on this album, ranging from "Green Shirt" to "Two Little Hitlers" and "Sunday Best."

There are the required number of punk titles, like "Goon Squad," but on the whole it is more inspired than punk ever allows.

With the first 5,000 copies of this album, an e.p. has been included.

On that small record, Costello and the Attractions perform "Accidents Will Happen," "Alison" (a hit for Linda Ronstadt), and "Watching The Detectives."

This album was due for release last Thursday, but the date has been postponed until this week.

-
<< >>

Sydney Morning Herald, 7-Day Guide, January 29, 1979


Christine Hogan reviews Armed Forces.

Images

1979-01-29 Sydney Morning Herald 7-Day Guide page 02 clipping 01.jpg
Clipping.

1979-01-29 Sydney Morning Herald 7-Day Guide page 02.jpg
Page scan.

-



Back to top

External links