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He's still just 29, but at many moments, Declan MacManus, a.k.a. Elvis Costello, seems eternal. He could walk down any street with his wife and kids, an unremarkable Everyman, and not attract a second glance. Millions who resemble him — plainly dressed, of average build, wearing clothes on the far side of boring toil daily in factories, computer rooms, libraries, small shops. And it is about all of them, ordinary people who lead compartmentalized lives, that Elvis Costello writes his heartfelt laments, his declarations of frustrated dependence upon the arbitrary cruelty of the world.
Costello writes the following verse in "The Greatest Thing," a key-song on his eighth American album, Punch The Clock: "Punch the clock and in time you'll get pulled apart / If you're married on paper and not in your heart." It may be a reflection upon his own scarred and rebuilt marital relationship, but it rings as true for those whose lives Costello has never shared.
Following the pattern determined in last year's Imperial Bedroom, on this album Costello focuses on down-to-earth matters. As he matures, he is putting the "angry young man" image into the background, in favor of reflections upon the lost moments of people's private lives. Costello wishes he was the conquering suitor in "Everyday I Write the Book." He peeks behind the thin veneer of a torn-apart family on "The World and His Wife." While Costello's aim has been true to the soul ever since he released "Alison" many years ago, he is moving toward a more sympathetic connection to his audience.
Shortly after Imperial Bedroom was released, Costello, never at ease with the press, granted MTV an interview in which he considered the changing attitude and presentation of his recordings. "Preconceptions have been a bit of a trial for us. Maybe if we'd just done the same thing for four albums, like so many American groups seem to do quite successfully, this wouldn't have been a problem — if I'd settled on
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