Melody Maker, February 23, 1980: Difference between revisions
(formatting) |
(formatting) |
||
(4 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
Line 4: | Line 4: | ||
{{Bibliography article header}} | {{Bibliography article header}} | ||
<center><h3> Stax o' trax </h3></center> | <center><h3> Stax o' trax </h3></center> | ||
---- | ---- | ||
<center> Chris Brazier </center> | <center> Chris Brazier </center> | ||
---- | ---- | ||
'''Elvis Costello And The Attractions <br> | |||
Get Happy!! | |||
{{Bibliography text}} | {{Bibliography text}} | ||
If I'm not mistaken, the aura of infallibility which once surrounded Elvis Costello (from "Detectives" to "Radio, Radio," say), when his talent seemed so enormous, his grasp of the medium so complete, his bitterness so pervasive that it wouldn't let him "go soft," has become a little tarnished in the last year. | If I'm not mistaken, the aura of infallibility which once surrounded Elvis Costello (from "Detectives" to "Radio, Radio," say), when his talent seemed so enormous, his grasp of the medium so complete, his bitterness so pervasive that it wouldn't let him "go soft," has become a little tarnished in the last year. | ||
Doubts about ''Armed Forces'', doubts about his production job for the Specials, even doubts about his politics — you can see what might have led Elvis to react away from the glossy expansiveness of his last record (which I actually think was underrated, though I saw the cracks too), though cynics might say that the feel of ''Get Happy!'' has just as much to do with the latest outbreak of Sixties chic. | Doubts about ''Armed Forces'', doubts about his production job for the Specials, even doubts about his politics — you can see what might have led Elvis to react away from the glossy expansiveness of his last record (which I actually think was underrated, though I saw the cracks too), though cynics might say that the feel of ''Get Happy!!'' has just as much to do with the latest outbreak of Sixties chic. | ||
There's a traditional Sixties cover, which I don't like any more than the inner sleeve and the useless poster, and a comment from Nick Lowe (producing again) on the album's containing 20 tracks which reassures "hi-fi enthusiasts and people who have never bought a record made before 1967" that no loss of sound-quality results. It's as if the Sixties have again become an incomparable golden age, and those who remember it are one-up on the rest of us, a notion which plagued the early Seventies and which I hoped punk had dispelled. | There's a traditional Sixties cover, which I don't like any more than the inner sleeve and the useless poster, and a comment from Nick Lowe (producing again) on the album's containing 20 tracks which reassures "hi-fi enthusiasts and people who have never bought a record made before 1967" that no loss of sound-quality results. It's as if the Sixties have again become an incomparable golden age, and those who remember it are one-up on the rest of us, a notion which plagued the early Seventies and which I hoped punk had dispelled. | ||
Line 25: | Line 26: | ||
Elvis certainly retains his fondness for playing with puns and manipulating common phrases, which helps to give him his acute sense of the sound of a line, though its overall effect can be brittle, making you wonder if he really cares as much about the substance as the style. There are a couple of weak plays on words — there's ''"You lack lust / You're so lacklustre"'' from "Possession," but then that song's made by some great lines later on: ''"My case is closed, my case is packed / I'll get out before the violence / All the tears of a silence."'' | Elvis certainly retains his fondness for playing with puns and manipulating common phrases, which helps to give him his acute sense of the sound of a line, though its overall effect can be brittle, making you wonder if he really cares as much about the substance as the style. There are a couple of weak plays on words — there's ''"You lack lust / You're so lacklustre"'' from "Possession," but then that song's made by some great lines later on: ''"My case is closed, my case is packed / I'll get out before the violence / All the tears of a silence."'' | ||
The sharp lines outnumber the blunt — there's a pin-up girl who's "framed and hung | The sharp lines outnumber the blunt — there's a pin-up girl who's ''"framed and hung up"'' — but even so I'm often unsure of what he's getting at, and I'm not helped by the necessary brevity of these statements. Certainly, (with one exception) the songs don't seem to me to be any more "personal" than is usual with Elvis, except as they illuminate him via his eternal preoccupations with love as jealousy, hate and betrayal, and with life as a kind of sordid Hollywood B-picture. | ||
There's actually a song here called "B | There's actually a song here called "B{{nb}}Movie," that abuses a lover with the words ''"B{{nb}}movie, that's all you're to me,"'' and it's the finest piece bar one on the weaker side — the part of the chorus where he reduces a relationship into ''"I can't stand it when it goes from reel to reel / I can't stand it when it's got no punchline you can feel"'' is magical. It's surpassed on that side only by "Motel Matches," a classic piece of Costelloid neon melodrama, on which his vocal is superb and the moment when the music falls away beneath the chorus-line ''"Boys everywhere..."'' is one of the best on the album. | ||
But for sheer consistent quality you should turn to the eight songs in the middle of the other side, which really make the whole record. Three stand up tallest. "Secondary Modern" sees Elvis' voice shedding its habitual bite for a gentleness he's maybe avoided since "Alison" because of that "new wave balladeer" tag — the way he croons (yes, croons) ''"Your body makes me sad like you / Now my whole world goes from blue to blue"'' is delightful. "King Horse" is so immediately and expansively attractive, largely because of the piano, that it might be the next single. It's trademarked Costello from the start (''"Cheap cut satin and bad perfume"''), and look at the resonance he gets from wordplay in ''"Still, she knows the kind of tip she is gonna get / A lot of loose exchanges, precious little respect."'' And then there's "New Amsterdam," a faultless folk waltz which seems the only obviously personal piece here, as he lays into America at the same time as musing: ''"Back in London ... Though I look right at home I still feel like an exile."'' On all three of these (just to balance things), Naive's keyboards are outstanding. | But for sheer consistent quality you should turn to the eight songs in the middle of the other side, which really make the whole record. Three stand up tallest. "Secondary Modern" sees Elvis' voice shedding its habitual bite for a gentleness he's maybe avoided since "Alison" because of that "new wave balladeer" tag — the way he croons (yes, croons) ''"Your body makes me sad like you / Now my whole world goes from blue to blue"'' is delightful. "King Horse" is so immediately and expansively attractive, largely because of the piano, that it might be the next single. It's trademarked Costello from the start (''"Cheap cut satin and bad perfume"''), and look at the resonance he gets from wordplay in ''"Still, she knows the kind of tip she is gonna get / A lot of loose exchanges, precious little respect."'' And then there's "New Amsterdam," a faultless folk waltz which seems the only obviously personal piece here, as he lays into America at the same time as musing: ''"Back in London ... Though I look right at home I still feel like an exile."'' On all three of these (just to balance things), Naive's keyboards are outstanding. | ||
Twenty-track avalanches are difficult to absorb | Twenty-track avalanches are difficult to absorb — tracks that first seemed weak have now come up smiling, and others may follow. There are certainly better things for an artist of Elvis Costello's ability to be doing than looking back, but ''Get Happy!!'' will do fine for the moment. | ||
{{cx}} | |||
{{tags}}[[Get Happy!!]] {{-}} [[The Attractions]] {{-}} [[Steve Nieve|Steve Naive]] {{-}} [[Nick Lowe]] {{-}} [[Riot Act]] {{-}} [[5ive Gears In Reverse]] {{-}} [[I Stand Accused]] {{-}} [[Human Touch]] {{-}} [[Black And White World]] {{-}} [[Love For Tender]] {{-}} [[Possession]] {{-}} [[B{{nb}}Movie]] {{-}} [[Motel Matches]] {{-}} [[King Horse]] {{-}} [[Stax]] {{-}} [[Secondary Modern]] {{-}} [[New Amsterdam]] {{-}} [[Alison]] {{-}} [[Watching The Detectives]] {{-}} [[Radio, Radio]] {{-}} [[Armed Forces]] {{-}} [[The Specials]] {{-}} [[F-Beat]] {{-}} [[Stiff Records]] {{-}} [[Clive Langer|Clive Langer & The Boxes]] {{-}} [[Jake Riviera]] {{-}} [[David Jensen|Kid Jensen]] {{-}} [[BBC 1 FM|Radio{{nb}}1]] {{-}} [[The Police]] {{-}} [[Sting]] {{-}} [[Radar Records]] {{-}} [[2{{nb}}Tone]] {{-}} [[Motown]] {{-}} [[John Hiatt]] {{-}} [[Multi-Coloured Swap Shop|Swap Shop]] {{-}} [[Linda Ronstadt]] {{-}} [[Linda Ronstadt: Mad Love|Mad Love]] {{-}} [[Party Girl]] {{-}} [[Talking In The Dark]] {{-}} [[Concert 1979-12-29 London|Kampuchea]] {{-}} [[The Jags]] | |||
{{cx}} | |||
<br><br> | |||
{{Bibliography boxx}} | |||
<center><h3> Pseud writer writes </h3></center> | |||
---- | |||
<center> Chris Brazier </center> | |||
---- | |||
{{Bibliography text}} | |||
Concerning my review of Elvis Costello's ''Get Happy!!'' album (''MM'' February 23): | |||
In case anyone's interested, the word should have been "atavistically," not "statistically," until the printers got at it. Serves me right for being pseudy. | |||
— Chris Brazier, | |||
London E3 | |||
(''MM'', March 1) | |||
{{cx}} | |||
{{cx}} | {{cx}} | ||
Line 48: | Line 71: | ||
[[Ian Birch]] reports on EC's appearance on Radio 1's ''Round Table''. | [[Ian Birch]] reports on EC's appearance on Radio 1's ''Round Table''. | ||
---- | ---- | ||
''Melody Maker'' reports on upcoming [[:Category:1980 UK Tour|tour]] | ''Melody Maker'' reports [[Clive Langer|Clive Langer & The Boxes]] have been added as support on the upcoming [[:Category:1980 UK Tour|UK tour]]. | ||
{{Bibliography images}} | {{Bibliography images}} | ||
[[image:1980-02-23 Melody Maker page 25 clipping.jpg| | [[image:1980-02-23 Melody Maker page 25 clipping.jpg|x275px|border]]{{t}} | ||
[[image:1980-02-23 Melody Maker photo 01 do.jpg| | [[image:1980-02-23 Melody Maker photo 01 do.jpg|x275px]] | ||
<br><small>Photo by [[Denis O'Regan]].</small> | <br><small>Photo by [[Denis O'Regan]].</small> | ||
<br><br> | <br><br> | ||
{{Bibliography box | {{Bibliography box}} | ||
<center><h3> Pop star slams Police </h3></center> | <center><h3> Pop star slams Police </h3></center> | ||
---- | ---- | ||
Line 86: | Line 109: | ||
''On his new label, F-Beat. | ''On his new label, F-Beat. | ||
"We're The Stax to 2 | "We're <!-- The --> the Stax to 2{{nb}}Tone's Motown." | ||
''On Bob Seger. | ''On Bob Seger. | ||
Line 94: | Line 117: | ||
''On M. | ''On M. | ||
"The funniest thing I've ever seen was the look on M's face when his band walked into the ''Swap Shop'' recording and saw the Boomtown Rats were already dressed in their 'Deer Hunter' outfits and all his band had fatigues on. He almost smiled for a minute. The world's most boring man." | "The funniest thing I've ever seen was the look on M's face when his band walked into the ''Swap Shop'' recording and saw the Boomtown Rats were already dressed in their ''Deer Hunter'' outfits and all his band had fatigues on. He almost smiled for a minute. The world's most boring man." | ||
''On Linda Ronstadt's treatment of two of his songs, "Party Girl" and "Talking In The Dark." | ''On Linda Ronstadt's treatment of two of his songs, "Party Girl" and "Talking In The Dark." | ||
Line 128: | Line 151: | ||
<br><br> | <br><br> | ||
[[image:1980-02-23 Melody Maker page 03 clipping 02.jpg|x250px]]{{n}} | |||
[[image:1980-02-23 Melody Maker photo 02 do.jpg| | [[image:1980-02-23 Melody Maker photo 02 do.jpg|x250px]] | ||
<br><small>Photo by [[Denis O'Regan]].</small> | |||
<br> | |||
{{Bibliography box | {{Bibliography box}} | ||
<center><h3> Elvis boxed | <center><h3> Elvis boxed </h3></center> | ||
---- | ---- | ||
<center> | <center> Melody Maker </center> | ||
---- | ---- | ||
{{Bibliography text}} | {{Bibliography text}} | ||
Elvis Costello will be joined by fellow management-mate Clive Langer and his band, the Boxes, as support act on his March tour. | Elvis Costello will be joined by fellow management-mate Clive Langer and his band, the Boxes, as support act on his March tour. | ||
Line 148: | Line 172: | ||
{{cx}} | {{cx}} | ||
<br><br> | <br> | ||
<small>Cover.</small><br> | |||
[[image:1980-02-23 Melody Maker cover.jpg|x120px]] | [[image:1980-02-23 Melody Maker cover.jpg|x120px]] | ||
{{Bibliography notes footer}} | {{Bibliography notes footer}} | ||
Line 158: | Line 182: | ||
==External links== | ==External links== | ||
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melody_Maker Wikipedia: Melody Maker] | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melody_Maker Wikipedia: Melody Maker] | ||
*[https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-UK/Music/Archive-New-Musical-Express-IDX/IDX/History-of-Rock/TheHistoryOfRock1980-IDX-64.pdf#search=atavistically worldradiohistory.com] | |||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Melody Maker 1980-02-23}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Melody Maker 1980-02-23}} |
Latest revision as of 18:18, 29 December 2021
|