Melody Maker, December 30, 1978: Difference between revisions
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<center><h3> Elvis: A compulsive confusion </h3></center> | <center><h3> Elvis: A compulsive confusion </h3></center> | ||
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<center> Tony Rayns </center> | <center> Tony Rayns </center> | ||
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'''Elvis Costello And The Attractions <br> | |||
Armed Forces | |||
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The Mystery Dance for 1979 sounds like a step sideways. ''Armed Forces'' consolidates everything that Elvis Costello achieved with The Attractions on Last Year's Model. Some of the songs and arrangements here would have fitted on the last album; others seem designed to "stretch" the band and demonstrate its flexibility. There's less gut attack, less overall aggression this time; instead a more relaxed display of energy and precision, of the kind that springs from unusual self-confidence. And the confidence is largely justified. Who else currently makes 12-cut albums without a single duff track? | The Mystery Dance for 1979 sounds like a step sideways. ''Armed Forces'' consolidates everything that Elvis Costello achieved with The Attractions on Last Year's Model. Some of the songs and arrangements here would have fitted on the last album; others seem designed to "stretch" the band and demonstrate its flexibility. There's less gut attack, less overall aggression this time; instead a more relaxed display of energy and precision, of the kind that springs from unusual self-confidence. And the confidence is largely justified. Who else currently makes 12-cut albums without a single duff track? | ||
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[[image:1978-12-30 Melody Maker cover.jpg|x260px | [[image:1978-12-30 Melody Maker cover.jpg|x260px]] | ||
[[image:1978-12-30 Melody Maker page 22 clipping 01.jpg|x260px | [[image:1978-12-30 Melody Maker page 22 clipping 01.jpg|x260px]] | ||
<br><small>Cover and clipping.</small> | <br><small>Cover and clipping.</small> | ||
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<center><h3> Album of the year </h3></center> | <center><h3> Album of the year </h3></center> | ||
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[[image:1978-12-30 Melody Maker page 19.jpg| | [[image:1978-12-30 Melody Maker page 19.jpg|140px|border|right]] | ||
Returning briefly to our original [[Melody Maker, March 11, 1978|review]] of Elvis Costello's ''This Year's Model'' (''MM'' March 11), we find it modestly acclaimed as "an achievement so comprehensive, so inspired, that it exhausts superlatives... it promotes its author to the foremost ranks of contemporary rock writers." Familiar, even predictable, hyperbole, perhaps; but on this occasion, at least, such enthusiasm is surely vindicated by the record's decisive musical impact and its powerful resonance. | Returning briefly to our original [[Melody Maker, March 11, 1978|review]] of Elvis Costello's ''This Year's Model'' (''MM'' March 11), we find it modestly acclaimed as "an achievement so comprehensive, so inspired, that it exhausts superlatives... it promotes its author to the foremost ranks of contemporary rock writers." Familiar, even predictable, hyperbole, perhaps; but on this occasion, at least, such enthusiasm is surely vindicated by the record's decisive musical impact and its powerful resonance. | ||
Revision as of 11:39, 3 April 2021
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