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Don't go counting on a new era of emotional detente just because Elvis Costello and the Attractions' latest album is entitled Trust (Columbia JC-37051). Trust is just a fleeting ideal amid the suspicion and uneasiness that dominate the album's 14 songs. "Pretty words don't mean much anymore," one of Costello's choruses advises. "You don't know what's what. You don't know what you've got."
In contrast to the authoritarian fear and furtiveness of Costello's third album, Armed Forces, this one is driven by random phantoms. And they're everywhere. "Lovers Walk," for example, is a catalog of romantic trespass. "Be on caution where lovers walk," Costello warns. "Your teacher never taught you anything but white lies," he admonishes in "New Lace Sleeves." "Shot With His Own Gun" is a case of the ultimate betrayal.
So who can you trust, anyway? Well, you can depend on Costello to be up to his usual standards. Every lyric is a play on words. "I don't want to be first," he sings at one point, "I just want to last." Musically, the tour includes several old Costello themes. "Shot..." grows out of "Accidents Will Happen," right down to the crooning vocal and the solo piano. "Different Finger" is another fanciful excursion into maudlin country-rock and it's a dandy. "I don't even know your second name," Costello sings to his paramour.
The Nick Lowe production is lean and uncluttered, but that doesn't preclude a bit of experimenting. Costello's choruses are decked out in double-tracked harmony. Attraction Pete Thomas trades vocals with Costello in "From a Whisper to a Scream." "Lovers Walk" builds a wild drumbeat into a chant. Costello generally plays faster and looser with standard song form than he used to. Happily, there aren't 20 tunes on Trust, as there were on the last two Costello albums. As a result, each track maintains its distinction.
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