|
Declan Patrick Aloysius "Elvis Costello" MacManus should be a very happy man.
In the last few years he has managed to marry the Pogue of his dreams (Cait O'Riordan, seemingly the last Pogue with her real teeth, and swing what was surely a major, big bucks recording deal with Warner Bros. Records, the same company who managed to lure R.E.M. into their parlour, and who are attempting to buy the contracts of every major artist in the free world. Now, just last week, he released his best album since his debut My Aim is True; and to top it all off, he got to work with Rock God Paul McCartney.
No need to be frightened... Paul doesn't sing at all. He just plays the bass on the two tunes he co-wrote with D.P.A. Again, fear not, Elvis, sorry, Declan must have kept control of the songwriting because at no time are these tunes even remotely similar in any way, shape or form to "Ebony and Ivory" or "Say, Say, Say," nor are we subjected to anything as horrible as Pipes of Peace (the only album ever known to sound better in its Muzak version). Good old Paul returns to his "Twist and Shout" days, co-writing the first single "Veronica" and "Pads, Paws & Claws," both wonderful rockers.
"Veronica" is a flashback to Declan's "Elvis" days, when his aim was truest, and he had not yet wrapped himself in the less-worn pages of Webster's dictionary of deep, dark, hyberboles. "Pads..." rocks as hard and loud as the Elvis anthem "Pump It Up," and includes some of his most startling shrieks since "The Eisenhower Blues" from a few albums back.
|
