University of South Carolina Daily Gamecock, March 12, 1980

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The King as cynical as ever in newest release Get Happy


Steve Prazak

Elvis Costello,the king of pain, heartache, and pessimism has called his new album Get Happy? Has the bespectacled one finally flipped out? Not at all, Get Happy is just a moniker for another bunch of scathing testimonials from the pen of Mr. C. Though sarcasm runs rampant through its title, Get Happy contains more blatantly cynical Costellotunes than ever before; twenty, to be exact.

Getting twenty new tunes from Mr. Costello is certainly a treat, although they're all under three minutes long. Digesting twenty songs at once is a hit of a chore, especially songs that demand your attention as much as these. Producer Nick Lowe attributes the presence of so many songs on one LP to "groove cramming" and the record nears the end of each side. Thankfully, there is no fidelity loss present.

Lyrically, Costello is as confused and angry as ever. tie's reading through a dishonest girl's eyes that give her away like "motel matches," but still needs that "human touch" amidst this mechanical world. Costello almost comes off as a non-neurotic Woody Allen. Here he compares a girl to a "B movie," while another conniving female calls him "uncle" as he has "a heart attack around her ankles." Yes, the world is still a nasty place for Elvis Costello with that ever pointing finger of his aiming directly toward the vicious, back-biting fairer sex.

Production wise, Lowe has once again pushed the keyboards up front while the guitar gets knocked back a little deeper in the mix. Costello's guitar is barely audible (if it's there at all) on most of the tunes. That marvelous nucleus called the Attractions comes more to the fore here than on any of the previous albums. Even Costello's voice is mixed down to a level somewhat akin to Mick Jagger's voice circa on Sticky Fingers.

Although Steve Naive's keyboards dominate Get Happy there's none of that think sound that characterized the Armed Forces album. Far from a hollow sound, Get Happy shows more of a variety of styles than most Costello efforts. "Human Touch" is a great bluebeat stomper along the lines of Costello's first production clients, the Specials.

The Brinsley Schwarz-like "Temptation," a Motownish "B Movie," the country whine of "Motel Matches," a tune pretty enough to come from the pure pop pen of Nick Lowe: "Possession," the soulful stomp of Sam and Dave's "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down," as well as the more rock 'n' rolling items make Get Happy a marvelous juxtaposition of musical styles.

This album comes out at a rather controversial time as Costello's English label, Radar, folded late last year. Radar's English distributor, Warner Bros. then claimed to have both Costello's and Nick Lowe's con-tracts. Costello apparently thought otherwise and started a label of his own in cahoots with manager Jake Riviera: Offbeat Records.

Both Get Happy and a 45 of "I Can't Stand Up" (sporting a flipside of Costello's own version of the song he wrote for Dave Edmunds: "Girl's Talk") are on the Offbeat label.

Buying the English import might be more worthwhile as Columbia often takes a song or two off the American issue. They have done this before with both Armed Forces and This Year's Model. The English pressing is usually of higher quality anyway. The cover art usually stays the same in both countries.

Get Happy's cover continues Costello's fascination with geometric designs (even down to the Offbeat logo). Both sides of the cover seem to show a bit of wear and tear, i.e. the outline of the record and its label showing up as white splotches. This is NOT a defect in the cover. They were all made like that. Elvis is really a joker, he's even smiling on the cover. Now it's your turn to get happy.

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The Daily Gamecock, March 12, 1980


Steve Prazak reviews Get Happy!!.

Images

1980-03-12 University of South Carolina Daily Gamecock page 11 clipping.jpg
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1980-03-12 University of South Carolina Daily Gamecock page 11.jpg
Page scan.

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