I could never make my mind up about Costello. Do I have to now? You don't really care what I think. It's safe to say this is no Costello masterpiece. The arrangement stops and starts, clips and climbs, briefly takes the mickey out of itself, and it's all very mature. It doesn't achieve the transcendence of peak Costello, doesn't stop me in my tracks.
Unexpectedly the third track on this neat maxi-single, "Hoover Factory" does just that. A winsome hundred second ode to the criminally demolished art deco loveliness of the Hoover factory, with a typical little twist in the tail. "It's not a matter of life or death, but what is?" Ah yes, it's little moments like that that turn pop music into the art that works me up like it was a matter of life and death, that is nothing more or less than a way of passing the time.
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