Uncut, May 2002

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Ian Penman

Elvis Costello / When I Was Cruel
3-star reviews3-star reviews3-star reviews

Once, whole council estates would sing "Oliver's Army" or "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down" and it would be like the sun coming up over the hill. Now, well, say there ARE a handful of dark, cutting performances on When I Was Cruel. They are also so in-turned and convoluted — so knotted fathom-deep inside an acquired-taste Elvis Costello vocabulary — that I honestly can't see anyone but Greil Marcus sitting down and working them out. (And, I'm sorry, but that's worse than Dad Rock: that's Weird Reclusive Uncle Bill — He Never Married, Don't Sit On His Knee, Dear — Rock.)

So. What do you want to know?

Is this a "return to form"? Is this the "good" Elvis all we fortysomethings wait for every year like a cross between Bruce Springsteen and Santa Claus? "Good" generally signifying a vengeful four-piece rock full o' smudgy puns, itchy riffs and vacant blondes like some Inspector Morse (Code) of the Fender Jazzmaster world?

Well, yes and no. The good news is that Elvis is no longer scared of remix/sampling/post-rap sonics (which, for all I know, is BAD news to you: maybe you'll HATE the tricky new EC, and not find it at all Attractive enough, even if he does quote "Watching The Detectives").

My initial reaction to the dubby, clicky "When I Was Cruel 2," "Alibi' and "Dust" was, wow-at-long-fucking-last-HELLfire-fucking-BRILLIANT! (Later, I did get to wondering whether they don't just sound good in the context of an Elvis Costello song; whether you couldn't pick up any new Tommy Boy CD or Missy 12-inch and hear stuff a thousand times sharper.)

EC has always had a weird relationship to music as sensual (as opposed to soapbox) thing; and if I had another 5,000 words I might go into the whole vexed question of how (much) this links to his much-trumpeted obsessions with Guilt and Revenge (especially the former, which no one ever wanted to know so much as the sexy, Nick-Kent-kool latter), and thence to his not-so-often discussed Catholic background.

At 65 minutes, When I Was Cruel is (like nearly every CD released these days) WAY too long; if he was less of the Mr Muso he'd clip off, oh, four or five of the (to be honest, six or seven) by-the-code-book "Elvis Costello" tracks. THEN you would have an LP as coiled, urgent, newsworthy, concise and angry as could be. "When I Was Cruel 2" and "Alibi" are haunting, headbutty, hilarious, the best he has sounded for aeons: like a Psyche trapped inside an Age, not a muso punching his way out of a paper persona. These are punchy, throaty, bloodrush tracks — tanked up, let's-have-a-big-fucking-row tracks — which effortlessly, spitefully, overshadow all the little Spiritualizeds, Radioheads, Starsailors blubbing and boo-hooing out there in Poor Me Land.

Such tracks (and "Tart" and "Dust") are eminently quotable — especially the latter, a kind of 3 am Girls "Desolation Row," from what I can make out — but there is also a whole lot of EC-by-numbers here, with lines like "I want a girl to turn my screw / To wind my watch / to buckle my shoe" (I don't know how he didn't capsize with shame when he put that last one down). And there's also WAY too much morality-by numbers. Elvis, I'd be careful using the word "whoring" about anyone else's vocation when part of yours is to introduce the despicable Grammies alongside Amanda Holden — bet you were hoping not too many people saw that, eh? Or maybe the opposite with a "new record to plug?"

Too much on When I Was Cruel is both pointedly obtuse in an overfamiliar EC way; and lazily ill-considered ("She had the attention span of warm cellophane" just doesn't work as a figure), flash savagery for the sake of a good pun (and just what IS it with blondes? Like, his guilt over that fling he had with a lovely "band aid" 20 years ago ought to have a fucking moratorium on it by now, you know?)...

With a bit of self pruning, a bit MORE risk and space in the production (fewer words, more echo) and he might have TRULY self reinvented. In 2002, no matter how much better than His Last Few LPs this is, it's still Just Another Elvis Costello LP.

Or as my teenybopper girlfriend just (cruelly) put it: "Put So Solid Crew back on NOW!"

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Uncut, No. 60, May 2002


Ian Penman reviews When I Was Cruel.

Images

2002-05-00 Uncut page 90 clipping 01.jpg
Clipping.

Cover and page scans.
2002-05-00 Uncut cover.jpg 2002-05-00 Uncut contents page.jpg 2002-05-00 Uncut page 90.jpg

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