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Elvis Costello, we have been led to believe, has become a flower child. His bitterness and cynicism have given way to peace, love and understanding.
Listening to the music of Mighty Like A Rose, you might actually believe that. Decorous sitting-room ballads, Caribbean-inspired groove rock and mystically ethereal love songs — not to mention some of Costello's most heart-wrenching singing since "Alison" — all indicate that Costello has mellowed since experiencing marital bliss.
Not by a longshot. Even as he sings playful melodies straight out of Sgt. Pepper, Costello's caustic eye surveys "burning forests in the hills of Astroturf," and he wonders if it was "a millionaire who said 'imagine no possessions'?"
His new hippie hairstyle and beard notwithstanding, the former prototype of the New Wave has lost none of the venom that makes his pen so penetrating. Spitting out the lyrics like nails, he sings over a funky beat: "Any day now a giant insect mutation / Will swoop down and devour the white man's burden / Starting out with all the sensitive ones ... Hurry down doomsday, the bugs are taking over."
While Costello retains his breezy way with a pop melody, as well as his Holden Caulfield-esque disdain for hypocrites and phonies, he also shows a new concern for the environment. But in Costello's rage the world is already too spoiled to bother saving. He also offers several songs of love, but spends more time musing on its awful awkwardness than its intoxicating joy.
Still, Costello closes the album with what may be the most hopeful note of his career. In the plaintive tone of a cynic grasping for redemption, he sings, "I can't believe I'll never believe in anything again."
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