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Costello's latest takes a bleak tone
Gary Graff
Elvis Costello
Mighty Like A Rose
It's not exactly news that Elvis Costello doesn't write songs like "You Are the Sunshine of My Life," but even his most devoted fans may be taken aback by the bleak and uncharacteristically humorless tone of Mighty Like a Rose, Costello's first offering in two years. Unlike 1989's Spike, which found the British troubadour wonderfully witty and wry — and successfully traipsing through new musical settings — Rose is consumed by anger, despair, bitterness, disillusionment and self-recrimination, reaching the shattering conclusion that "I can't believe I'll never believe in anything again." Dark and disturbing images abound — the battling lovers of "After the Fall" and "Georgie and Her Rival," the coquette of "So Like Candy" (cowritten with Paul McCartney), the surrealistic pick-up scenario in "Harpies Bizarre" — and many swim through spare, hookless and funereal arrangements that don't seem to serve the impressive roster of musicians Costello has gathered. Rose's best songs — including "The Other Side of Summer," "Hurry Down Doomsday," "How to Be Dumb" and "Playboy to a Man" (another McCartney collaboration) tend to be upbeat and recall Costello's work with his old band, the Attractions. They're nice, but on Spike and 1986's King of America, Costello showed he could be successful without leaning on past trademarks. Mighty Like a Rose doesn't live up to their standards.
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