Dallas Observer, May 4, 1995: Difference between revisions
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{{Bibliography article header}} | {{Bibliography article header}} | ||
<center><h3> Taking liberties </h3></center> | <center><h3> Taking liberties </h3></center> | ||
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<center> Robert Wilonsky </center> | <center> Robert Wilonsky </center> | ||
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'''Elvis Costello <br> | |||
Kojak Variety | |||
{{Bibliography text}} | {{Bibliography text}} | ||
Recorded immediately after 1991's ''Mighty Like a Rose'' and before ''The Juliet Letters'' with the Brodsky Quartet, this all-covers disc instead recalls the E.C. of old — the man who released ''Get Happy!'' and ''Taking Liberties'', the would-be soul singer, the rock revisionist, the jazz crooner, the modernist with respect for his elders. | Recorded immediately after 1991's ''Mighty Like a Rose'' and before ''The Juliet Letters'' with the Brodsky Quartet, this all-covers disc instead recalls the E.C. of old — the man who released ''Get Happy!'' and ''Taking Liberties'', the would-be soul singer, the rock revisionist, the jazz crooner, the modernist with respect for his elders. | ||
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If Costello sounded too cynical and fed-up on recent albums, like a lost and tired man singing through a yawn and a sneer, ''Kojak Variety'' is his most open work in years, driven by soul instead of the puny black heart that made ''Mighty Like a Rose'' so unlistenable. His take on Ray Noble's "The Very Thought of You" pales when compared to <i>Taking Liberties</i>' sparse, unnerving, brief "My Funny Valentine," but it underlines just how great a singer he has become after all these years. | If Costello sounded too cynical and fed-up on recent albums, like a lost and tired man singing through a yawn and a sneer, ''Kojak Variety'' is his most open work in years, driven by soul instead of the puny black heart that made ''Mighty Like a Rose'' so unlistenable. His take on Ray Noble's "The Very Thought of You" pales when compared to <i>Taking Liberties</i>' sparse, unnerving, brief "My Funny Valentine," but it underlines just how great a singer he has become after all these years. | ||
And it reminds us how powerful a performer Costello can still be: whether he's crooning the Burt Bacharach-Hal David composition "Please Stay" or belting Willie Dixon's "Hidden Charms" or screaming Little Richard's "Bama Lama Bama Loo," Costello never sounds out-of-place or ill-suited to the material. He is, like Sinatra, a man who so thoroughly buries himself in his material that it becomes hard to believe he didn't write the words himself, something never more obvious than when he's interpreting the music of Bob Dylan ("I Threw | And it reminds us how powerful a performer Costello can still be: whether he's crooning the Burt Bacharach-Hal David composition "Please Stay" or belting Willie Dixon's "Hidden Charms" or screaming Little Richard's "Bama Lama Bama Loo," Costello never sounds out-of-place or ill-suited to the material. He is, like Sinatra, a man who so thoroughly buries himself in his material that it becomes hard to believe he didn't write the words himself, something never more obvious than when he's interpreting the music of Bob Dylan ("I Threw It All Away") or Ray Davies ("Days") — the fathers of Elvis Costello, their bastard son. | ||
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{{tags}}[[Kojak Variety]] {{-}} [[Mighty Like A Rose]] {{-}} [[The Juliet Letters]] {{-}} [[The Brodsky Quartet]] {{-}} [[Get Happy!!]] {{-}} [[Taking Liberties]] {{-}} [[Screamin' Jay Hawkins]] {{-}} [[Strange]] {{-}} [[Little Richard]] {{-}} [[Bama Lama Bama Loo]] {{-}} [[Sam & Dave]] {{-}} [[The Merseybeats]] {{-}} [[Booker T. & the M.G.'s]] {{-}} [[Ray Noble]] {{-}} [[The Very Thought Of You]] {{-}} [[My Funny Valentine]] {{-}} [[Burt Bacharach]] {{-}} [[Hal David]] {{-}} [[Please Stay]] {{-}} [[Willie Dixon]] {{-}} [[Hidden Charms]] {{-}} [[Frank Sinatra]] {{-}} [[Bob Dylan]] {{-}} [[I Threw It All Away]] {{-}} [[Ray Davies]] {{-}} [[Days]] | |||
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{{Bibliography notes}} | {{Bibliography notes}} | ||
{{Bibliography next | |||
|prev = Dallas Observer, January 19, 1995 | |||
|next = Dallas Observer, July 27, 1995 | |||
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'''Dallas Observer, May 4, 1995 | '''Dallas Observer, May 4, 1995 | ||
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Latest revision as of 18:02, 22 October 2021
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