New Musical Express, February 16, 1980: Difference between revisions
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This is the result: ''Get Happy!!'', Elvis Costello's soul album, 20 tracks, 50 minutes, with the single first, just like a Motown. | This is the result: ''Get Happy!!'', Elvis Costello's soul album, 20 tracks, 50 minutes, with the single first, just like a Motown. | ||
In 1979 Costello had to step down and take a break. He'd made the side-step into a fine art, but last year he finally put a foot wrong. He achieved his first number one single with a sly indictment of the armed farces cleverly disguised as an | In 1979 Costello had to step down and take a break. He'd made the side-step into a fine art, but last year he finally put a foot wrong. He achieved his first number one single with a sly indictment of the armed farces cleverly disguised as an Abba song, and he jeopardized his standing in America by getting into a bar-room brawl in the wake of which some quarters of the US media were about ready to lynch the tense, over-worked, over-tired little limey bigot. | ||
For a while it seemed that the closing lines of ''Armed Forces'' had got it ironically wrong. ''"I will not burn,"'' he promised. ''"I will return."'' And so he has. | For a while it seemed that the closing lines of ''Armed Forces'' had got it ironically wrong. ''"I will not burn,"'' he promised. ''"I will return."'' And so he has. | ||
Of course, there were those of us who got quite a kick out . of watching Elvis push and push and push, driven by Whatever it is that drives him — money, lust, drugs, revenge, boredom, sheer perversity, a hunger for the brink —to an almost inevitably bitter end. In a terribly 'vicarious way — like watching a fighter in the ring — I really enjoyed these past few years of watching Elvis burn. It was going to be good. It was going to spare him and me the sad and embarrassing spectacle of an undignified decline. It wasn't going to be like | Of course, there were those of us who got quite a kick out . of watching Elvis push and push and push, driven by Whatever it is that drives him — money, lust, drugs, revenge, boredom, sheer perversity, a hunger for the brink —to an almost inevitably bitter end. In a terribly 'vicarious way — like watching a fighter in the ring — I really enjoyed these past few years of watching Elvis burn. It was going to be good. It was going to spare him and me the sad and embarrassing spectacle of an undignified decline. It wasn't going to be like The Who, that's for sure. | ||
But that was then and this is now. Elvis picks up where he left off with a tight-reined musical stomp called "[[5ive Gears In Reverse]]": ''"You think l don't know what I'm doing? Another fashionable first? Like walking down that road to ruin."'' | But that was then and this is now. Elvis picks up where he left off with a tight-reined musical stomp called "[[5ive Gears In Reverse]]": ''"You think l don't know what I'm doing? Another fashionable first? Like walking down that road to ruin."'' | ||
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To digest the content of 20 songs takes a longtime. To digest the songs takes even longer. ''Get Happy!!'' isn't an ''especially'' long album — most of the songs last only two and a half minutes — but they're crammed to the teeth. So let's chew it over (-night, in fact). | To digest the content of 20 songs takes a longtime. To digest the songs takes even longer. ''Get Happy!!'' isn't an ''especially'' long album — most of the songs last only two and a half minutes — but they're crammed to the teeth. So let's chew it over (-night, in fact). | ||
Elvis and The Attractions have pared their sound right down to the bone. There are no solos, except for one small flourish of guitar at the end of "5ive Gears," there are no synthesisers and almost no overdubs. | Elvis and The Attractions have pared their sound right down to the bone. There are no solos, except for one small flourish of guitar at the end of "5ive Gears," there are no synthesisers and almost no overdubs. Steve Mason fleshes out the sound on acoustic piano and organ with his usual succinct excellence, and Pete Thomas and Bruce Thomas lock in hard with Elvis rhythm guitar. The model is obviously The MGs — and Nick Loew takes his production cues from that and from the Motor-town hit factory. | ||
While Steve Mason is busy out-doing | While Steve Mason is busy out-doing Bob Andrews' Garth Hudson impersonation and throwing in a side order of Booker T, Bruce Thomas is busy making like Carole Kaye. "[[Love For Tender]]" ìs almost a tribute to Tamla. "[[High Fidelity]]" goes beyond Motown, and the bass on "[[B Movie]]" is pure Detroit studio '66 off-set by a reggaematic mix-up. There's more: Elvis loosens up his usual twisted, venomous snarl and lets in some Eddie Floyd, some Marvin Gaye, and something more relaxed, varied and confident. True to their source, the vocals are more part of the mix than its highlight, as in the past. You don't have to pay attention, just play it and it'll be re-paid. | ||
''Get Happy!!'' comes at a good time, but in a sense it also comes at the wrong time. It makes deliberate nods to the period that inspired it (the jokey time-warped sleeve admits to everything before you even play it) but it makes them well over six months too late. That doesn't make it a bad album. No way. The skill and style with which the participants have adapted the sound – and all the familiar elements of Elvis Costello are still around, even two songs in country waltz time – shows the door to all the young contenders for the new soul crown. ''Get Happy!!'' gets it ''right''. Simple as that. It's a long way from just a re-creation. | ''Get Happy!!'' comes at a good time, but in a sense it also comes at the wrong time. It makes deliberate nods to the period that inspired it (the jokey time-warped sleeve admits to everything before you even play it) but it makes them well over six months too late. That doesn't make it a bad album. No way. The skill and style with which the participants have adapted the sound – and all the familiar elements of Elvis Costello are still around, even two songs in country waltz time – shows the door to all the young contenders for the new soul crown. ''Get Happy!!'' gets it ''right''. Simple as that. It's a long way from just a re-creation. | ||
I have a friend who thinks Costello has a method. | I have a friend who thinks Costello has a method. Iggy and Bowie used it to write ''Lust For Life''. You take a song, as a model or jumping-off point, and then gradually strip away the parts, replacing them with your own, until the original song is all but un-recognisable. He imagines it isn't as precise as that, however. For, say, "[[Temptation]]" Elvis had a lyric and just said to the band play like "Green Onions" or something ("Temptation" isn't a million miles removed from "Green Onions"). My friend also hears "We Can Work It Out" ("[[Clowntime Is Over]]") and "[[I Saw Her Standing There]]" ("[[Beaten To The Punch]]") as well as echoes of certain Supremes' songs. So maybe soul was simply last year's model. And talking of models ... | ||
The songs on ''Get Happy!!'' were written over a year in which Elvis can't help but have changed somehow considering the way events upset his previous poise. Broadly speaking, the lyrics seem to come from either a period of sleepless nights in the US of A, or from later, more conciliatory times back home. | The songs on ''Get Happy!!'' were written over a year in which Elvis can't help but have changed somehow considering the way events upset his previous poise. Broadly speaking, the lyrics seem to come from either a period of sleepless nights in the US of A, or from later, more conciliatory times back home. | ||
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Elvis still isn't too enamoured of the modern world (and he rails humourously at the harbinger of bleakness and automation on "(I Need, I Need, I Need A) [[Human Touch]]" — which is also, appropriately, a fine tribute to The Specials), but he seems more at ease this time with the strain between his curiously old-fashioned morality and modern temptations, if only marginally less bitter at the bind he, and others, find themselves in. Try, for starters, "[[Black And White World]]": ''"I was looking at the black and white world / Trying to nail some pin up / Those days she was just a beautiful girl / Now she's plain and hung up / It seemed so exciting if you'd only put me back to back with that girl / With just a little lighting / There'll never be days like that again / Can I resist a bargain?"'' | Elvis still isn't too enamoured of the modern world (and he rails humourously at the harbinger of bleakness and automation on "(I Need, I Need, I Need A) [[Human Touch]]" — which is also, appropriately, a fine tribute to The Specials), but he seems more at ease this time with the strain between his curiously old-fashioned morality and modern temptations, if only marginally less bitter at the bind he, and others, find themselves in. Try, for starters, "[[Black And White World]]": ''"I was looking at the black and white world / Trying to nail some pin up / Those days she was just a beautiful girl / Now she's plain and hung up / It seemed so exciting if you'd only put me back to back with that girl / With just a little lighting / There'll never be days like that again / Can I resist a bargain?"'' | ||
The question seems to have been answered. But Elvis' camera keeps clicking in his head. Here's a sordid, sorry little polaroid from the sexual supermarket with music down home from | The question seems to have been answered. But Elvis' camera keeps clicking in his head. Here's a sordid, sorry little polaroid from the sexual supermarket with music down home from Aretha Franklin and lyrics from one of the prime exponents of the wry country idiom. ''"Boys everywhere, fumbling with the catches / I struck lucky with motel matches / Falling for you without a second look /Falling out of your open pocket book / Giving you away like motel matches"'' ("[[Motel Matches]]"). | ||
With 20 songs, and no solos to interrupt them, there are a lot of lyrics on this album, and there's a lot being said with a greater sense of direct autobiographical honesty (some of it very graphic) and with less of a feeling of contrivance than on previous albums. Elvis doesn't seem to be under as big an obligation as on ''Armed Forces'' to keep coming up with those pithy puns and coy couplets. There's a much better rhythm and expression here; a greater, more enjoyable, liberty. He must have been aware of his tendency to sound, at times, unbearably forced, and ''Get Happy!!'' doesn't. | With 20 songs, and no solos to interrupt them, there are a lot of lyrics on this album, and there's a lot being said with a greater sense of direct autobiographical honesty (some of it very graphic) and with less of a feeling of contrivance than on previous albums. Elvis doesn't seem to be under as big an obligation as on ''Armed Forces'' to keep coming up with those pithy puns and coy couplets. There's a much better rhythm and expression here; a greater, more enjoyable, liberty. He must have been aware of his tendency to sound, at times, unbearably forced, and ''Get Happy!!'' doesn't. | ||
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''Thrills'' includes a photo of EC on ''Tiswas'', Saturday, [[TV 1980-01-12 Tiswas|January 12, 1980]]. | ''Thrills'' includes a photo of EC on ''Tiswas'', Saturday, [[TV 1980-01-12 Tiswas|January 12, 1980]]. | ||
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Full page ads for ''Get Happy!!'' run on pages 25 and | Full page ads for ''Get Happy!!'' run on pages 25 and 36-37. | ||
{{Bibliography images}} | {{Bibliography images}} | ||
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<br><br><br><br><br> | <br><br><br><br><br> | ||
<small>Ads for ''Get Happy!!''.</small><br> | <small>Ads for ''Get Happy!!''.</small><br> | ||
[[image:1980-02-16 New Musical Express | [[image:1980-02-16 New Musical Express pages 36-37 advertisement.jpg|360px|border]] | ||
Revision as of 04:42, 13 November 2018
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