Boston Phoenix, August 9, 1983: Difference between revisions
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By now it's obvious that Elvis Costello is the major singer/songwriter of his generation; what's gone unexplored is the inherent limitation of that status. Like Dylan and Springsteen before him, he's reached the point of mass-cult audience at which the flaws in his musical conceptions meet him face to face, proving that to be champion poet rocker is not to be a pop genius like, say, Marvin Gaye or Elton John, performers who can cross over into. dominant positions in the mainstream without too much message interrupting the groove or getting between the melodies, and the masses. Singer/songwriters generally have two problems — their singing and their songs — that preclude megadollar triumph. Most do what they can with their voices to put Over their lyrics, Which means that the total performance is an eccentric balance of the two, generally ignoring, or fudging, the harmonic niceties of conventional songwriting. Again like Dylan and Springsteen (or Young, or Reed, or Van Morrison), Costello has an unruly voice and overly literary lyrics, neither of which fits easily into pop form. These performers are MI writers first; they're singers by authorial rather than God-given voice, and they're not musicians at all, not in the technical sense of instrumentalists capable of playing others' repertoires. They therefore have evolved styles peculiarly suited to expressing their original compositional idiosyncrasies. All of which is to say that Costello's most jarringly juxtaposed stylistic experiments represent his most convincing and his most commercially flawed records. And that is why ''Punch the Clock'' (Columbia), his ninth album, and his most poppish since ''Armed Forces'', is his most insignificant record, and potentially his greatest hit (''cf.'' the Clash's ''Combat Rock''). | By now it's obvious that Elvis Costello is the major singer/songwriter of his generation; what's gone unexplored is the inherent limitation of that status. Like Dylan and Springsteen before him, he's reached the point of mass-cult audience at which the flaws in his musical conceptions meet him face to face, proving that to be champion poet rocker is not to be a pop genius like, say, Marvin Gaye or Elton John, performers who can cross over into. dominant positions in the mainstream without too much message interrupting the groove or getting between the melodies, and the masses. Singer/songwriters generally have two problems — their singing and their songs — that preclude megadollar triumph. Most do what they can with their voices to put Over their lyrics, Which means that the total performance is an eccentric balance of the two, generally ignoring, or fudging, the harmonic niceties of conventional songwriting. Again like Dylan and Springsteen (or Young, or Reed, or Van Morrison), Costello has an unruly voice and overly literary lyrics, neither of which fits easily into pop form. These performers are MI writers first; they're singers by authorial rather than God-given voice, and they're not musicians at all, not in the technical sense of instrumentalists capable of playing others' repertoires. They therefore have evolved styles peculiarly suited to expressing their original compositional idiosyncrasies. All of which is to say that Costello's most jarringly juxtaposed stylistic experiments represent his most convincing and his most commercially flawed records. And that is why ''Punch the Clock'' (Columbia), his ninth album, and his most poppish since ''Armed Forces'', is his most insignificant record, and potentially his greatest hit (''cf.'' the Clash's ''Combat Rock''). | ||
Costello's three | Costello's three '70s albums followed the pub-to-punk-to-pop development of the formative new wave, transforming bitterness into rage into distance, more or less in tune with the times. The '80s Elvis is a new man. He should have given up the pseudonym (it still sounds stupid, and it betrays his stature) when he gave up the rock and roll. And as versatile as they are, the Attractions never struck me as a rock band — simply not enough guitar. As Costello began to marry adult themes to adult musics, the band, especially keyboardist Steve Nieve, evolved into an all-purpose unit — like the bands that play at weddings, only in a different league. But clearly the ambition of Elvis's records in this decade is to rewrite all the fake books in his own hand, to create an entire repertoire of classic standards that flesh out his vision of modern social functioning. | ||
Ugly cover art, choked production, and all, the first of these records, ''Get Happy!'' remains my favorite Elvis, because on it he discovered (his) soul, both as genre and as spirit. At first he flattened out his cross-genre ambitions within the murky production c of his lounge-trio backing band. Mixing up jazz, romantic ballads, rhythm and blues, country, and vestiges of rock's subgeneric roots, he made everything better as it became more disjunct on ''Trust''. And that, as the mock orchestra photo on the inner sleeve suggested, is when he should have dumped the band. It's excellent, I know, but if your diversity i going to be credible in a pop context, you'd better invest in the varied conventions. Which is what Billy Sherrill was doing on ''Almost Blue'', and what the orchestra was doing on ''Imperial Bedroom''. But because both were tacked on to the Attractions music, neither was integral or integrating. Never again would Elvis be as urgent as on ''Get Happy!'', the climax and transformation of his idea of a rock band. On ''Trust'' and ''Imperial Bedroom'' the narrative in the writing and the narration in the singing went far beyond most of his earlier material; yet the breadth of the music was limited by the unvarying focus on keyboards. | Ugly cover art, choked production, and all, the first of these records, ''Get Happy!'' remains my favorite Elvis, because on it he discovered (his) soul, both as genre and as spirit. At first he flattened out his cross-genre ambitions within the murky production c of his lounge-trio backing band. Mixing up jazz, romantic ballads, rhythm and blues, country, and vestiges of rock's subgeneric roots, he made everything better as it became more disjunct on ''Trust''. And that, as the mock orchestra photo on the inner sleeve suggested, is when he should have dumped the band. It's excellent, I know, but if your diversity i going to be credible in a pop context, you'd better invest in the varied conventions. Which is what Billy Sherrill was doing on ''Almost Blue'', and what the orchestra was doing on ''Imperial Bedroom''. But because both were tacked on to the Attractions music, neither was integral or integrating. Never again would Elvis be as urgent as on ''Get Happy!'', the climax and transformation of his idea of a rock band. On ''Trust'' and ''Imperial Bedroom'' the narrative in the writing and the narration in the singing went far beyond most of his earlier material; yet the breadth of the music was limited by the unvarying focus on keyboards. | ||
Randy Newman has said that he doesn't think much of Costello's songwriting but does feel he's a great singer — an opinion that goes against the critical wisdom. As Newman should know better than most, a singer/songwriter can sing only from inside his own material. Costello's whisper-to-a-holler, spit-and-swallow delivery uses a range of emotional signals but lacks the fluidity to make. any but abrupt transitions. And it's the drama of these uncomfortable leaps that embodies the | Randy Newman has said that he doesn't think much of Costello's songwriting but does feel he's a great singer — an opinion that goes against the critical wisdom. As Newman should know better than most, a singer/songwriter can sing only from inside his own material. Costello's whisper-to-a-holler, spit-and-swallow delivery uses a range of emotional signals but lacks the fluidity to make. any but abrupt transitions. And it's the drama of these uncomfortable leaps that embodies the thematic awkwardness of his persona. Although Costello's never written a bad country song, he's made a bad country album, because his genre singing can work only within the voice of his sensibility. Costello is too sharp a wit, too fast and aggressive with his perceptions, to be credible singing a C&W weeper like "A Good Year for the Roses." "Mouth Almighty," on the new album, is his sendup of his own over-eager verbal talents. | ||
In this light, ''Imperial Bedroom'', which many critics thought of as last year's best record, is a botched masterpiece, both the culmination of and the dumping ground for the vagaries of that sensibility. Creating charged situations out of various musical points of view, the LP piled up layers of different vocal sounds as fractured as the cover painting. ''Imperial Bedroom'' contained Costello's most ambitious songs and deepest perceptions into the politics of marriage and sexual relationships, all derived from the moral | In this light, ''Imperial Bedroom'', which many critics thought of as last year's best record, is a botched masterpiece, both the culmination of and the dumping ground for the vagaries of that sensibility. Creating charged situations out of various musical points of view, the LP piled up layers of different vocal sounds as fractured as the cover painting. ''Imperial Bedroom'' contained Costello's most ambitious songs and deepest perceptions into the politics of marriage and sexual relationships, all derived from the moral | ||
Revision as of 18:46, 13 February 2014
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