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Sentiment and satire
KING OF AMERICA
The Costello Show (featuring Elvis Costello) (CBS)
Nicholas Jennings
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King of America marks a turning point for Britain’s Elvis Costello. His 11th album in less than a decade is a return to simple arrangements that best reveal his gifts as a composer. Produced with American singer T-Bone Burnett, it is also his first since he legally returned to his original name, Declan MacManus. In the new record’s 15 stark songs, Costello bares his soul as never before. With a stripped-down accompaniment, he sings with heartfelt emotion about lost love and the elusive American dream. The bittersweet American Without Tears, set to an accordion waltz, deals with the shattered hopes of an English war bride living in the United States after the Second World War. Indoor Fireworks, a melancholic country ballad about the problems that often arise in romance, contains some of the album’s best lyrics. When he sings, “I’ll build a bonfire of my dreams and burn a broken effigy of me and you,” Costello provides a touching variation on the smoke-gets-in-your-eyes theme. In his often brilliant career, King of America will stand as a crowning achievement.
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