So rock 'n' roll's most embittered cynic is supposed to have gotten happy. I'm afraid it's a line I can't possibly buy on the evidence in the actual grooves.
In fact the title is both ironic and not. In terms of the stance, the ideas, the point of view in the lyrics, there is little change ib Elvis Costello. An alternative title might have been that coined by the J. Geils band for their latest opus Love Stinks; in Get Happy, (consider this) Elvis leads us through a series of skirmishes on the bedroom floor, in and out of hotel rooms and, it seems, across America.
The songs are largely autobiographical, as Costello fiercely analyses, denounces and admits his own guilt, in relationships which inevitably prove more problematic than sustaining.
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