Harvard Crimson, January 17, 1979: Difference between revisions
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Lament if you must the end of Elvis Costello's youthful spontaneity, the two-minute rockers flowing endlessly from his pen and mouth. At least he hasn't lost his energy and style — he's just turned them in a slightly different direction. Whether he goes off the deep end in future albums remains to be seen. | Lament if you must the end of Elvis Costello's youthful spontaneity, the two-minute rockers flowing endlessly from his pen and mouth. At least he hasn't lost his energy and style — he's just turned them in a slightly different direction. Whether he goes off the deep end in future albums remains to be seen. | ||
The one trend on ''Armed Forces'' he should guard against is the over-production that seeps into the album. Nick Lowe has produced all of Elvis Costello's albums, and has always done right by his music, but on Armed Forces the fiddling just begins to interfere with his simple music formulas. Costello's voice may not be beautiful, but it's strong, warm, and conveys angry emotion better than any other popular singer's today. There's no need for it to be buried in muddy mixing, bounced from one stereo channel to another, or treated with synthetic echo. | The one trend on ''Armed Forces'' he should guard against is the over-production that seeps into the album. Nick Lowe has produced all of Elvis Costello's albums, and has always done right by his music, but on ''Armed Forces'' the fiddling just begins to interfere with his simple music formulas. Costello's voice may not be beautiful, but it's strong, warm, and conveys angry emotion better than any other popular singer's today. There's no need for it to be buried in muddy mixing, bounced from one stereo channel to another, or treated with synthetic echo. | ||
With three records to his name, each a masterpiece, only the most prejudiced or uninformed listener will dismiss Costello as "just another new-waver" or "a boring punk." He's new wave only chronologically, and ''Armed Forces'' makes use of a diversity of styles most performers today are too incompetent or unimaginative to handle. If he can hold his paranoia in check, and prevent it from freezing all humanity out of his music, Elvis Costello may well go on to dominate the next decade the way his namesake dominated the '50s. At least until 1984, that is — if he can outwit the thought police and the "goon squad." Wish him luck. | With three records to his name, each a masterpiece, only the most prejudiced or uninformed listener will dismiss Costello as "just another new-waver" or "a boring punk." He's new wave only chronologically, and ''Armed Forces'' makes use of a diversity of styles most performers today are too incompetent or unimaginative to handle. If he can hold his paranoia in check, and prevent it from freezing all humanity out of his music, Elvis Costello may well go on to dominate the next decade the way his namesake dominated the '50s. At least until 1984, that is — if he can outwit the thought police and the "goon squad." Wish him luck. |
Revision as of 01:52, 14 November 2015
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