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Costello's album called wishy-washy
Roger Catlin
LP is a step backward
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After a real stab at the Top 40 with last year's album and an acclaimed solo acoustic tour this spring, the release of Goodbye Cruel World (Columbia) seems like a real puzzlement from Elvis Costello.
Backed by the excellent Attractions, he offers a disappointing step backward. The result is wishy-washy.
It begins with a sparkling probable-single, "The Only Flame in Town," backed by Daryl Hall, and moves to a few meditations on soured romance and typically cryptic attacks on America, Elvis Presley fanatics and President Reagan's foreign policy (in one of the standout songs).
He seems less angry than discontent, with a few random rumblings and no real direction of his band (which cooks on one song only after he's stopped singing) or his own lyrics.
The frustrated confusion is understandable after years of commercial stasis, but unsettling nonetheless.
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Clipping.
Page scan.
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