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King Of America
Elvis Costello
Jay Cocks
Watch out. Streisand may take on Costello next. His lyric wordplay is like a violent-ward version of Sondheim, but — fortunately for all concerned — his estate-bottled vitriol is not conducive to any kind of sentimentalizing. "You're the marshmallow valentine that got stuck on her clothes" is one of his more wistful reflections, and each of the 15 tunes on this new album is a diary of peerless savagery. (Interested parties will also want to pick up a new Costello single, "Brand New Hairdo," a song that is not on the album but still seems to be part of it, like the sheath for a knife.) Costello's anger can be inner directed, toward a wracked-up heart ("Poisoned Rose"), or launched outward like a lance into the body politic (like "Little Palaces," with its evocation of the "sedated homes of England"), but whatever its course, a Costello song is a cry of urgency and spiritual isolation. This is not his bleakest album either. But it is surely one of his best.
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Page scan.
Cover and contents page.
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External links