London Guardian, September 30, 1980: Difference between revisions
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Costello's last album, ''Get Happy'', which flirted with soul music idioms, was a necessary and astutely crafted departure from his established style which confirmed his prodigious writing skills, but vanished from the charts almost as soon as it arrived. | Costello's last album, ''Get Happy'', which flirted with soul music idioms, was a necessary and astutely crafted departure from his established style which confirmed his prodigious writing skills, but vanished from the charts almost as soon as it arrived. | ||
Time has made Costello more sure of his own artistry | Time has made Costello more sure of his own artistry — an assurance which has had the duel consequences of encouraging him to take chances with his songwriting, pulling out melodic phrases as embellishments which would have been unthinkable three years ago; but with that self assurance has come a loss of the manic, driven quality which made Costello such a compelling performer. Once an act of exorcism, his performance now displays well rounded if occasionally misplaced perfectionism. | ||
The simple but elegant duet for voice and piano which opened the show provided an arresting glimpse of Costello's range and sophistication; but from then on he and his band tended to tackle everything at much the same brisk, edgy pace which may have been perfectly suited to new songs like "Lovers Walk" and "From a Whisper to a Scream," which take the listener by force and show that ruthless power of the attractions, but which tended to blunt the subtlety of songs like "Accidents Will Happen." | The simple but elegant duet for voice and piano which opened the show provided an arresting glimpse of Costello's range and sophistication; but from then on he and his band tended to tackle everything at much the same brisk, edgy pace which may have been perfectly suited to new songs like "Lovers Walk" and "From{{nb}}a Whisper to a Scream," which take the listener by force and show that ruthless power of the attractions, but which tended to blunt the subtlety of songs like "Accidents Will Happen." | ||
A curious mixture of the exciting and the frustrating, one senses that Costello's powers as a writer have outgrown the limitations of his surroundings in performance and that he now needs greater musical depth to do his material justice. Nowadays, the studio rather than the stage is a better setting for his talent. | A curious mixture of the exciting and the frustrating, one senses that Costello's powers as a writer have outgrown the limitations of his surroundings in performance and that he now needs greater musical depth to do his material justice. Nowadays, the studio rather than the stage is a better setting for his talent. | ||
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{{tags}}[[Rainbow Theatre]] {{-}} [[London]] {{-}} [[The Attractions]] {{-}} [[Get Happy||]] {{-}} [[Lovers Walk]] {{-}} [[From A Whisper To A Scream]] {{-}} [[Accidents Will Happen]] | |||
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'''The Guardian, September 30, 1980 | '''The Guardian, September 30, 1980 | ||
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[[Mick Brown]] reviews Elvis Costello | [[Mick Brown]] reviews Elvis Costello & [[The Attractions]], Monday, [[Concert 1980-09-29 London|September 29, 1980]], Rainbow Theatre, London, England. | ||
{{Bibliography images}} | {{Bibliography images}} | ||
