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Elvis — no more cuteness
Joe Stein
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Elvis Costello is a missile among mortars.
“Armed Forces,” his latest triumph, is confidence and chutzpah rising out of the plastic stare constipating the recording industry. The lanky curious-looking bespectacled Costello has clearly had enough of his former image.
The days of cuteness and cuffed dungarees are gone. The Briton is fed up.
Costello is not punk or new wave. He is a powerful rocker-songwriter with a Fender guitar, crisp three-piece band (the Attractions) and the production genius of Nick Lowe.
The AM schtick factories that push the likes of Hot Chocolate and the Bee Gees can ill-afford to ignore Costello for long, even though the man in the corduroy jacket himself could care less.
Moving to the front lines is the Sergeant Pepper of the 80s.
Consider the cuts on the album.
“Goon Squad,” a rock anthem for proletarians.
“Busy Bodies,” an indictment of the synthetic love made to fit human needs.
Costello makes a cynical observation:
So you think that you have seen her.
When you’re lying in between her…
But you don’t care busy bodies getting’ nowhere.
“Moods for Moderns,” an expose of beautiful people. Listen to this number the next time you flip through Cosmopolitan magazine.
“Chemistry Class,” a tender tune about the physical properties of human emotion.
“Two Little Hitlers,” a political study of a menage-a-trois.
Remaining text and scanner-error corrections to come...
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Clipping.
Page scan, clipping and illustration.
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