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I remember when Elvis Costello and the Attractions’ 5th album Taking Liberties came out – a compilation of B sides and UK singles – and received a mediocre to bad review in The New York Times. A friend of mine convinced me to buy the LP without my having heard it. He said, “Look, Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan don’t write bad songs.” I had to agree. Elvis Costello had been my favorite for about 7 – 8 months and Taking Liberties only helped to solidify that position.
Three years later Elvis has yet to write a bad song. His latest release, Punch the Clock, is wonderful. While the music seems to flow logically from the last album, Imperial Bedroom, it also explores new sounds, featuring the TKO horn section, and female background vocalists called Afrodiziak (you know, like green M&M’s). Elvis has never had any background vocals besides himself, and these women are a great new touch. While Elvis has never had a horn section, his new album relies heavily on TKO – formerly Dexy’s Midnite Runners.
Interestingly, Elvis’ old material also generally goes great with the horns. In concert this summer, the horn section played for about two-thirds of the show and was a superb addition. Imagine the riff of “Pump it Up” done with horns, or any of the soulful Get Happy songs perked up by a horn section. The results were great.
The first song on Punch the Clock, “Let Them All Talk,” is a perfect demonstration of the powerful new horn sound as well as the female background vocalists, Elvis probably recognized this, as he not only opened the album but also his concerts, with this tune. The thing I found puzzling about the live shows was that he didn’t include Afrodiziak . In his past shows, the vocals were always a little peculiar, because certain things that Elvis could do in the studio on vocals were impossible live, so it would have been worthwhile to bring
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