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Elvis Costello's first new album in two years is a caustic, cutting delight, proof positive that after more than a decade of music-making, his aim is as true as ever.
Veering effortlessly through a half-dozen different musical styles, Spike showcases Costello's wide-ranging songwriting talents better than any of his albums since the 1982 masterpiece Imperial Bedroom.
While early albums like his 1977 debut My Aim Is True and 1979's Armed Forces focused mainly on the savage politics of male-female relationships, on Spike Costello unleashes his poison pen on a much wider realm of topics. Politics in England, capital punishment and religion are a few of the subjects that get the Costello treatment.
Much has been written about Costello's supposed mellowing since the days when he was the poet laureate of punk, but Spike is shot through with venom and vitriol. "Tramp the Dirt Down" has a folky charm, but the lyrics are a bitter attack on English Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: "When England was the whore of the world," Costello sings, "Margaret was her madam."
"Let Him Dangle" is a sinister-sounding tale of crime and retribution. Costello could have been refering to the shameless display of bloodlust surrounding the recent execution of Ted Bundy when he sang: "If killing anybody is a terrible crime / Why does this bloodthirsty chorus come round from time to time / Let him dangle."
One of the most curious songs, lyrically as well as musically, is "God's Comic." In this rambling, convoluted tale, Costello tells of a "comical priest" who dies, goes to heaven and meets God, who is reclining on a water bed, reading an "airport novelette" and listening to Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem.
"I've been wading through all of this unbelievable junk and wondering if I should have given the world to the monkeys," Costello's God muses.
Also included in the CD's 15 songs are two collaborations with Paul McCartney, "Veronica" and "Pads, Paws and Claws." "Veronica" is the better of the two, a niftly arranged piece of pop that loosely resembles McCartney's "Another Day" in theme and structure. On these two songs, McCartney's sweetness neutralizes Costello's bile.
The music of Spike is as varied as the song topics. "Chewing Gum" is a tangy stick of Prince-inspired funk, "Tramp the Dirt Down" recalls the folk-influenced songs of Costello's King of America album, and "Baby Plays Around" showcases Costello's torch song talents, first displayed on his 1981 album of country covers, "Almost Blue."
If the album has a fault, it's in Costello's relentless — if often brilliant — wordplay. Many times he manages to squeeze in a dozen lines and vague references where one would have done just nicely.
But Spike still ranks among Costello's best work, and Costello still ranks among pop's most challenging and unsettling artists.
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