UC Santa Barbara Daily Nexus, January 18, 1979

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Armed Forces

Elvis Costello

Diane Michalek

A girl who lives down the hall from me wears an "It's O.K. to like Nick Lowe" button on the left lapel of her jacket, walks with her fists firmly pushing the bottoms of her jeans' pockets, and loves Elvis Costello. Over Christmas vacation, she heard an advance tape of his new album and when she got back, she dropped her suitcase in my doorway and screamed, "It's SO GOOD!!" I like Elvis Costello, but I usually try to avoid the fanatical ravings of freshmen since they are generally biased and because they remind me of me. I slammed the door in her face.

But I shouldn't have. She was right.

Armed Forces is twelve songs about the establishment, the military, and the handicaps of love delivered with conviction and wry humor. On this album, Elvis Costello reaffirms the magnetism which has inspired such devotion and unaltering faith in his fans.

Like the girl down the hall screamed, this is his best album. Elvis now shows a willingness to explore broader lyrical and musical territory. His first My Aim Is True and second This Year's Model albums were dominated with songs about relationships and revenge. Only a few cuts, such as "Less than Zero," "Welcome to the Working Week," and "Radio, Radio" made statements beyond personal and sexual realms. These albums were also produced with sparse musical arrangements. Armed Forces reveals a turning away from these restrictions.

On half of the album's songs, Elvis uses his caustic wit to tear at traditional "Middle Class" values and bureaucratic hypocrisy. The question is, as with all who write protest songs, whether he is providing an impetus for change or merely complaining. I'd like to think it was the former. Take "Senior Service," his sarcastic statement about the security and normalcy that some people strive for:

 "I want your carpeted car,
I want your girlfriend in love,
I want your place at the bar
Because there's always another man
To chop off your head and
watch it roll into the basket."

The anti-education "Goon Squad," and the Nick Lowe penned "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" suggest the some contempt and inquiry of society. Additionally, "Oliver's Army," a biting war song, is backed by a melody straight off a Shaun Cassidy album. This paradox makes the lyrics even more poignant:

 "All it takes one itch, a trigger,
One more widow, one less white nigger.
Oliver's army is here to stay,
Oliver's army are on their way."

Elvis Costello once said, "The only two things that matter to me, the only motivation points for writing these songs, are revenge and guilt." This isn't true anymore. In songs about relationships, such as "Pay It Back" and "Lipstick Vogue" (from his other LPs), he mirrored this vengeful passion as if the rumblings under the sheets were his own. Now on cuts like on cuts like "Big Boys," "Party Girls," and "Busy Bodies," he seems to be observing the rumblings of someone else. Maybe he has vented enough of his anger and guilt towards women and relationships and is now aiming for society, a more ambiguous, if not nobler, goal.

As Elvis has grown lyrically, so has producer Nick Lowe, who has mastered an ample and integral sound. With his help, Armed Forces has a fuller, more infectious, musical base than Costello's earlier work on the comparably simple Model and the even sparser My Aim.

From the Phil Spectorish drums on "Big Boys," to the mechanically sensual "Green Shirt," to the synthesis of Talking Heads and disco on "Moods For Moderns," the music of Armed Forces shows a complex but accessible growth for Elvis Costello, the Attractions, and their producer.

Now that a new year is beginning and a decade is ending, it seems appropriate that Elvis is making more social comment than in the past. The apathy, the "Me-ism" of the 1970's, has been reflected in its paltry music which ships gold to record stores but which inevitably leaves only the legacy of a dusty pile of disposable vinyl. It took the will and courage of performers like Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, and Elvis Costello to channel their new-found success towards something more lasting. They aim for the hearts and souls of those who have the mundane music of the Seventies, those who once thought rock and roll was dead.

The girl down the hall from me can scream all she wants. Last year's model is this year's prophet and all the armed forces in the world can't do anything to stop him.

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Daily Nexus, January 18, 1979


Diane Michalek reviews Armed Forces.

Images

1979-01-18 UC Santa Barbara Daily Nexus pages 10-11 clipping composite.jpg
Clipping composite.

1979-01-18 UC Santa Barbara Daily Nexus page 10.jpg 1979-01-18 UC Santa Barbara Daily Nexus page 11.jpg
Page scans.

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