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Mighty Like a Rose, Elvis Costello's first release in two years, is a magnificent but troubling recording.
A flood of beautiful melodies and lush, expansive production rolls out of the speakers along with some of Costello's most bitter lyrics ever as the angry young man of the late '70s, now 35, confronts creeping middle age and its disappointments.
The result is an unsettled, sprawling album that crackles with an internal tension typified by the opening cut "The Other Side of Summer," which sets a litany of depression against lovely, Brian Wilsonesque music.
Like its predecessor, Spike, no two songs on Mighty Like a Rose are alike. But the eclecticism seems less forced here and Costello's bitterness comes biting through regardless of the style.
The record's most vicious song, "How to Be Dumb," is a snarling attack on a hypocritical dilettante in a pop-rock setting. It is followed by the equally nasty "All Grown Up," a swaying, string-anchored look at an angry young woman.
Two other song pairs stand out. The light woodwind-harpischord view of romance and pain, "Harpies Bizarre," is followed by "After the Fall," a soft, Spanish-tinged acoustic guitar tale of doomed lovers.
Two collaborations with Paul McCartney presented back to back continue the lyrical theme, with the shimmering regret of "So Like Candy" equaling "Veronica" from "Spike" as the pair's best work together.
Adding punch to the mix are the surging, ominous "Invasion Hit Parade" and the jaunty sparring of "Georgie and Her Rival."
Only the dirge, "Broken," written by Costello's wife, Cait O'Riordan, breaks the downcast lyrical pattern by crying out for love from another.
But Costello returns to his central theme with the closer, "Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 4," summing up the record in its final line — "I can't believe I'll never believe in anything again."
Filled with despair and disillusionment, Mighty Like a Rose is not easy to listen to at first. But after a couple weeks and a couple dozen spins, the record's strength and power emerges, even if the source of Elvis' anxiety remains obscure.
In short, Mighty Like a Rose is another Costello classic.
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