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The release of Elvis Costello's new album, Armed Forces, is a great way to start 1979.
Elvis and the Attractions, along with producer Nick Lowe, fuse the openness of My Aim is True, the more hectic pace of last year's This Year's Model, and Lowe's "pure pop for now people" strategy into an album as good as its two predecessors.
Although Costello's impressive track record compiled over two albums and various singles keeps Armed Forces from being considered his best album, it is simultaneously the most accessible and the most instantly likeable. The album should attract more listeners to Costello's growing following, without losing any out the back door.
"Accidents Will Happen," my current favorite Costello song, opens the album. It is featured, in a slower and more-hearty execution with just a piano accompaniment, on the free three-song live single included in Armed Forces.
The rest of this side contains the most prominent Costello-Lowe conjunctions stretched over five songs with Costello's arresting lyrics splattered over a variety of Nick Lowe backgrounds. "Oliver's Army" rides along on an ABBA-like riff and "Green Shirt" is held together by the Attractions' machinegun-like drumming and organ.
Elsewhere, "Big Boys" and "Party Girl" build to climaxes resembling Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin" and the Beatles' "I Want You," respectively.
"Goon Squad," boasting the album's most piercing edge musically and lyrically, opens side two. It is coupled with "Busy Bodies" with its rich texture and "Catch Us If You Can"-like vocal choruses patented on This Year's Model. The circular "Moods for Modern" is the most obvious link to Costello's debut, in particular "Welcome to the Working Week." This song's sparseness, however, gives way to the final flurry of "Chemistry Class," the snappy "Two Little Hitlers," and the cover of Lowe's "Peace, Love And Understanding," which is even more Phil Spector-like than the original.
This rather glorious sound is a fitting closing for this fulfilling album.
Like its predecessors, the English import of Armed Forces (Radar RAD 14) is different from the domestic release. The elaborate packaging and the inclusion of "Sunday's Best" — instead of "Peace, Love and Understanding" — which has a slow waltz-like feel threaded by some rollercoasting organ, make it worth the extra look in the import section of the record store.
And speaking of imports, Stiff Records, the label on which Elvis Costello first recorded and a generally fun English label to follow, has some new releases. The one I find myself returning to the most is Fool Around (Stiff SEEZ 12) the debut of a 16-year-old Ohio native, Rachel Sweet, who had some country and western recording experience a few years ago. The album's contents fall musically in between the free spirit of the Hayes/Porter cover "B-A-B-Y," and the cover of a more recent song of Elvis Costello's, the country western tinted "Stranger in the House."
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