New York Times, July 8, 1984: Difference between revisions
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It had to happen sooner or later. The lean, minimalist rock that seven years ago was labeled "new wave," has ripened into a fleshier, more sophisticated music that wants to be taken seriously as grownup pop. Is it possible for a style rooted in anti-establishment repudiation to mature gracefully without losing its identity as a skeptical, alternative music? | It had to happen sooner or later. The lean, minimalist rock that seven years ago was labeled "new wave," has ripened into a fleshier, more sophisticated music that wants to be taken seriously as grownup pop. Is it possible for a style rooted in anti-establishment repudiation to mature gracefully without losing its identity as a skeptical, alternative music? | ||
In his 10th album in seven years, Elvis Costello, the most literate and artistically ambitious English new wave singer-songwriter wants to have it both ways, but he has only partially succeeded in realizing a very elusive goal. ''Goodbye Cruel World'' (Columbia FC 39429) is an ambitious extension of the touching- all-bases eclecticism that Mr. Costello delineated in his previous two albums. ''Imperial Bedroom,'' in 1982, was the first record in which the singer-songwriter consciously aligned himself to the pre-rock songwriting tradition of Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, et al., by writing melodies that Frank Sinatra might have sung. | In his 10th album in seven years, Elvis Costello, the most literate and artistically ambitious English new wave singer-songwriter wants to have it both ways, but he has only partially succeeded in realizing a very elusive goal. ''Goodbye Cruel World'' (Columbia FC 39429) is an ambitious extension of the touching-all-bases eclecticism that Mr. Costello delineated in his previous two albums. ''Imperial Bedroom,'' in 1982, was the first record in which the singer-songwriter consciously aligned himself to the pre-rock songwriting tradition of Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, et al., by writing melodies that Frank Sinatra might have sung. | ||
But that alignment was only formal. While Mr. Costello's obsessive wordplay and knack for aphorism suggested a new wave answer to Cole Porter and Noel Coward, the album was a collection of anti-love songs that depicted erotic love not as a culminating social ritual but as a brutal blood sport. In ''Punch the Clock'' — and especially in his foggy-voiced interpretation of the song, "Shipbuilding," the singer, complemented by a Chet Baker trumpet solo, seemed to be moving confidently into a cool jazz cabaret style of pop. | But that alignment was only formal. While Mr. Costello's obsessive wordplay and knack for aphorism suggested a new wave answer to Cole Porter and Noel Coward, the album was a collection of anti-love songs that depicted erotic love not as a culminating social ritual but as a brutal blood sport. In ''Punch the Clock'' — and especially in his foggy-voiced interpretation of the song, "Shipbuilding," the singer, complemented by a Chet Baker trumpet solo, seemed to be moving confidently into a cool jazz cabaret style of pop. | ||
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"I Wanna Be Loved," a song very much in the tradition of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's ballads for Dionne Warwick, is the kind of straightforward torch song that Mr. Costello would probably write if he weren't so committed to the anti-romantic new wave point of view. The singer's quaveringly intense performance, utterly devoid of irony, is one of the most emotionally convincing of Mr. Costello's recording career. | "I Wanna Be Loved," a song very much in the tradition of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's ballads for Dionne Warwick, is the kind of straightforward torch song that Mr. Costello would probably write if he weren't so committed to the anti-romantic new wave point of view. The singer's quaveringly intense performance, utterly devoid of irony, is one of the most emotionally convincing of Mr. Costello's recording career. | ||
The album's other high point, Mr. Costello's original song, "Peace in Our Time," succeeds for diametrically opposite reasons. A cheery waltz, with a chorus whose opening phrase, "and the bells," echoes the first measures of "Silver Bells" and "Till There Was You," the song uses a traditional pop form to mount a sneering, photo-negative picture of "peace" in the world today. References to German disco, nuclear testing, the Falkland Islands war, space exploration and Ronald Reagan are compiled into a chilly vision of a world peace on the very brink of disintegration. And because Mr. Costello's tune and lyric are so straightforward, the sour, rinky-tink arrangement makes the whole song a scathing mockery both of official optimism and of officially cheerful pop. In this triumphant reconciliation of pop sophistication and pop junk, Elvis Costello finally gets to have his cake and eat it, too. | The album's other high point, Mr. Costello's original song, "Peace in Our Time," succeeds for diametrically opposite reasons. A cheery waltz, with a chorus whose opening phrase, ''"and the bells,"'' echoes the first measures of "Silver Bells" and "Till There Was You," the song uses a traditional pop form to mount a sneering, photo-negative picture of "peace" in the world today. References to German disco, nuclear testing, the Falkland Islands war, space exploration and Ronald Reagan are compiled into a chilly vision of a world peace on the very brink of disintegration. And because Mr. Costello's tune and lyric are so straightforward, the sour, rinky-tink arrangement makes the whole song a scathing mockery both of official optimism and of officially cheerful pop. In this triumphant reconciliation of pop sophistication and pop junk, Elvis Costello finally gets to have his cake and eat it, too. | ||
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Revision as of 00:36, 2 October 2019
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