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Elvis Costello can be awfully good or just plain awful. Taking Liberties is his most recent example of this fact.
This album, like Get Happy, also contains twenty songs. However, none of them are new. They are basically tracks that didn't make it onto one of his first four albums. Half of the songs are straight ahead rock while the other half are just plain boring.
Since Costello has his musical roots in punk, he should have realized he was blatantly committing the only sin of punk or new wave: to be boring. This leads the listener to conclude that this album was half complete and filled in with B-sides to fulfill contractual obligations.
This is unfortunate for Costello fans since the good cuts, isolated, had the makings of another masterpiece like This Year's Model.
The album opens with "Clean money." This fast paced rocker is just what the Costello fanatic (addict) needs. It is a shot in the arm of Costello at his bait. "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea" is another song that one expects to hear on the radio. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm of these two songs does not afflict the rest of the album.
Costello was better off performing "Black and White World" as fast as he could. The slow version on this album reveals that the lyrics just aren't that important.
Costello is a versatile performer, though. His slightly nasal voice is about the only type of voice that could deliver the lyrics with the venom he does. The only exception here is "Girl's Talk." The song was written for Dave Edmunds, and Edmunds still performs the song the best.
Costello not only writes and sings his own songs but also plays the guitar and organ. He is not restricted to the new wave format either. "Radio Sweetheart" and "Stranger In The House" have a distinct country flavor.
Even though the first side opens with five really good songs, Costello had enough sense to mingle the remaining cuts among the filler. On side two, "Chelsea," "Crawling To The USA" and "Wednesday Week" stand out in memory.
Elvis Costello probably won't gain any new fans with this album, but then, he doesn't care either. Although there are enough good tunes here to satisfy the Costello fan, let's hope that Costello doesn't confuse quantity with quality next time.
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