Hot Press, April 10, 2002: Difference between revisions
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''"I had something peculiar / Maybe...now it's dead,"'' sneers the Beloved Entertainer midway through "45," the autobiographical opening track of his 17th album proper. | ''"I had something peculiar / Maybe...now it's dead,"'' sneers the Beloved Entertainer midway through "45," the autobiographical opening track of his 17th album proper. | ||
And in fairness, while reports of the death of Elvis Costello's singular muse are greatly exaggerated, you'd have been forgiven — in view of his rather grown-up collaborators of late ( the opera singer, the quartet, the Jazz Passengers and most notably Burt | And in fairness, while reports of the death of Elvis Costello's singular muse are greatly exaggerated, you'd have been forgiven — in view of his rather grown-up collaborators of late ( the opera singer, the quartet, the Jazz Passengers and most notably Burt Bacharach) — for imagining the muse in question might be slipping into comfortable, "mature", more eclectic but somehow more predictable, middle age. | ||
Wrong. | Wrong. | ||
Violent, zizzed up, livid, political, tender, unflinching, occasionally hilarious and above all more spikily tuneful than he's been in years if not ever, When I Was Cruel is not so much a spectacular crash-landing back into form as a brash leap forward, further adventures — not recidivist, not nostalgic ones — in hi-fi. | Violent, zizzed up, livid, political, tender, unflinching, occasionally hilarious and above all more spikily tuneful than he's been in years if not ever, ''When I Was Cruel'' is not so much a spectacular crash-landing back into form as a brash leap forward, further adventures — not recidivist, not nostalgic ones — in hi-fi. | ||
Ferociously propelled by Davy | Ferociously propelled by Davy Faragher's dubby, jittery bass lines and ex-Attraction Pete Thomas' smack-in-the-jaw drumming, ''Cruel'' sprawls with take- no-prisoners brio through glitter-spangles dub ("My Spooky Girlfriend"), monolthic, locomotive blues-rock ("Dissolve"), stampeding Latinate percussion and squealing brass ( the toreador sex-dance of "15 Petals"), not to mention your common or garden vintage ramrod Costelloisms (er, everywhere). | ||
Lyrically, as well, it seems the author of "Shipbuilding" and "Tramp The Dirt Down" is still a formidable one-man awkward squad, still kicking at pricks while the rest of us dissemble. | Lyrically, as well, it seems the author of "Shipbuilding" and "Tramp The Dirt Down" is still a formidable one-man awkward squad, still kicking at pricks while the rest of us dissemble. | ||
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[[Kim Porcelli]] reviews ''[[When I Was Cruel]]''. | [[Kim Porcelli]] reviews ''[[When I Was Cruel]]''. | ||
{{Bibliography | {{Bibliography images}} | ||
[[image:When I Was Cruel album cover.jpg|180px|border|link=When I Was Cruel]] | |||
{{Bibliography notes footer}} | {{Bibliography notes footer}} |
Latest revision as of 17:50, 8 February 2022
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