Interview magazine, February 1989

Bibliography   72 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 UK & Ireland weeklies UK & Ireland magazines UK & Ireland newspapers US newspapers US rock magazines US music magazines US magazines US alternative weeklies European magazines European newspapers Canada  •  Mexico  •  Asia Australia  •  New Zealand South America  •  Africa Blogs  •  Fanzines  •  Books Online publications Interview   1986 April 1989 February 1992 November 1993 November 1994 May 1997 March 2002 May 2004 October US magazines  Artforum International Bop magazine Comics Journal Details Enlisted Times Entertainment Weekly Esquire Forbes GQ Hollywood Reporter High Times Interview Life Maxim Modern People The Nation New York New Yorker Newsweek Oxford American People Playboy Playgirl Spy Time Vanity Fair Variety Vogue Washingtonian Wet — Mellow Costello Jeff Giles Who knows what Elvis Costello's been thinking? In the past half-dozen years, he's reinvented himself so many times we've never quite known who'd be coming to dinner. He was Declan MacManus. He was Napoleon Dynamite. When he was really confused, he was "The Little Hands of Concrete" or "The Emotional Toothpaste." For a time Elvis was casting off identities quicker than he could think them up. Costello's career, of course, has always been one of casting things off. He's said goodbye (albeit briefly) to the Attractions and the Confederates, and to pop music a couple of times. He's said goodbye to the pointless spectacle of touring by giving concerts that were meant as parodies of concerts — game shows gone wrong, complete with a tottering Wheel of Fortune. And then, after the release of Blood and Chocolate, he just said goodbye. This month, Elvis Costello will release Spike, his first studio album since September of 1986. The songs were recorded in London, Dublin, Hollywood, and New Orleans with some help from the local talent: Paul McCartney, Chrissie Hynde, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and musicians borrowed from Tom Waits, the Pogues, the Attractions, and the Confederates. As a result this is as eclectic a record as Costello has made under any name. Spike swings from a hilarious pair of industrial-funk numbers to a polemic about capital punishment called "Let Him Dangle," which has to be the most riveting thing he's written. Above and beyond that, there's one brassy instrumental, one song called "Veronica," which sounds blissfully like something off Get Happy, and one song about God, who, it turns out, has a waterbed and likes Andrew Lloyd Webber. Costello is still working the occasional alias into his liner notes, unfortunately. Ignore it. For now, Elvis Costello is Elvis Costello again. Interview magazine, February 1989 - date confirmation needed Jeff Giles previews Spike. Images Illustration by Robert Risko. Cover and clipping.

External links

• InterviewMagazine.com
• Wikipedia: Interview magazine
• Wikipedia: Robert Risko
• elviscostello.info