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Elvis Costello comes out slashing in all directions at once with this one.
It is erratic enough that not much hits the target, but the outburst is intriguing much the same.
Mighty Like A Rose is an album of extremes.
It opens with "The Other Side Of Summer," a song with production so lush you couldn't cut through it with a wheat thrasher. This is followed by "Hurry Down Doomsday" which vents enough random anger to put it in the same category as "Helter Skelter." The set continues to ricochet wildly from dream to nightmare.
The music reflects a mood of inner turmoil.
If anything binds this album together, it is the theme of love lost. No one can deliver a song on this topic quite like Costello, with his acidic allegations and images of bloodletting and torn spirits.
Costello wastes little effort crafting the infectious pop songs he is known for. After 13 studio albums, he seems bored and in search of new parametres.
Throughout this frantic adventure, Mighty Like A Rose never finds a rational equilibrium, despite evoking a strange fascination.
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