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Linda Ronstadt's new, punchy album may be her best. Elvis Costello's is probably his worst.
The mainstream of popular culture is assimilating New Wave rock and the styles that go with it a lot faster than you might suspect. Maybe not yet in Buffalo, but it's certainly the case in New York and Los Angeles. To discover how far the Big Apple has gone, all you need to do is listen to FM rock radio down there. It's so vastly different from the local variety that it seems like another country. As for L.A., the evidence arrived with the latest Linda Ronstadt album, Mad Love (Asylum 5E-510).
Producer Peter Asher set the standard for glossy, seamless L.A. pop production with Ronstadt's Heart Like a Wheel album in the mid 70s. It made Ronstadt a star and Asher the object of endless imitation. This time around, they've broken the mold.
Swept away are the old studio standbys from the Jackson Browne band. Installed in their place are Peter Bernstein and Mark Goldenberg from an L.A. New Wave group, The Cretones. Asher stresses the rhythm guitars and the rough edges, giving the songs an unpolished finish that's punchy and immediate. In response, Ronstadt turns in the most spirited vocal performances of her career. Again and again, she pushes her voice to the limit.
Yes, Mad Love is Ronstadt gone New Wave, but don't let that alarm you. The precedent for this kind of trendiness was set with the roller skates and the Elvis Costello song on the Living in the U.S.A. album. This time there are three Costello songs and three by The Cretones' Goldenberg, one of them the title track.
Costello's "Girls Talk" and Goldenberg's "Cost of Love" are standouts. So are the oldies — Chip Taylor's "I Can't Let Go" with its counterpoint chorus, the Lettermen's 1969 hit "Hurt So Bad" and Neil Young's 1977 "Look Out For My Love." This is a great album. It could be Ronstadt's best.
The same can't be said for the latest by Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Get Happy!! (Columbia JC-36347). Costello and producer Nick Lowe have crammed 20 tunes onto this disc, most of them around two minutes long. The trouble is, few of them stand out from the crowd. Two which do are songs Costello didn't write — a pair of old r&b numbers, "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down" and "I Stand Accused."
Costello should be indicted for padding this record out with fillers and outtakes. Three songs could be sliced out of the middle of either side and they wouldn't be missed. Most of them are just plain underdeveloped. On Costello's previous albums, every cut counted. This one is a mile wide and an inch deep.
Still, a failure for Elvis Costello would be a success in most other circles. Some of the things that succeed are "Opportunity," which includes the line: "He's a compliment collector / I'd like to be his funeral director;" the money-love equation in "Love For Tender," the ballad stylings of "Secondary Modern," the puns in three-quarter time in "New Amsterdam," the steady serenity of the organ solo in "Clowntime Is Over" and some of the experiments with r&b riffs on side two. Or is it side one? The jacket says one thing, the label another. Could this be Costello's way of fooling around? Ha ha. Get inscrutable.
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