Elvis Costello, one of the many from angry young men to emerge from England recent years, has made three of the most vital albums of the late seventies. Like Bob Dylan in the sixties, Costello never repeats himself. Also like Dylan, Costello sings in a rough, sometimes whiny and definitely untrained voice. Obviously, Costello is the raw material from which great rock and rollers are made. Get Happy!, his fourth album is a tour de force through sixties soul sounds. Drawing from the innovative sixties records of Motown (Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder) and the potent work of Stax Records (Otis Redding, Booker T and the MGs, Wilson Pickett), Costello has made an album that echos a side of rock history while standing on its own through Costello's inimitable singing of telling lyrics about love and life.
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