Stars And Stripes, March 16, 1980

Bibliography   72 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 UK & Ireland weeklies UK & Ireland magazines UK & Ireland newspapers US newspapers US rock magazines US music magazines US magazines US alternative weeklies European magazines European newspapers Canada  •  Mexico  •  Asia Australia  •  New Zealand South America  •  Africa Blogs  •  Fanzines  •  Books Online publications Newspapers   The Australian Belgium Soir Berliner Zeitung Cleveland Scene Columbus Dispatch Connecticut Post Correio da Manhã Corriere della Sera Le Figaro Financial Times Gazeta Wyborcza Hamburger Abendblatt Irish Examiner Irish Independent Irish Press Irish Times Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger Liverpool Echo London Daily Mail London Evening Standard London Guardian London Independent London Observer London Telegraph London Times Los Angeles Herald-Examiner Louisville Courier-Journal Mail & Guardian Marin Independent Journal Mail Tribune Melbourne Age El Mundo Neue Zürcher Zeitung New Zealand Herald Otago Daily Times El Pais Philadelphia Inquirer Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Pittsburgh Tribune-Review La Presse Providence Journal Radikal Reading Eagle la Repubblica Satakunnan Kansa South China Morning Post Der Spiegel La Stampa Der Standard St. Petersburg Independent St. Petersburg Times Süddeutschen Zeitung Svenska Dagbladet Trondheim Adresseavisen Trouw De Volkskrant La Voz de Galicia Wanganui Herald Wiener Zeitung Die Zeit — Get Happy — Quirky work by Elvis Costello John Rockwell / New York Times NEW YORK — That mellow song stylist, Elvis Costello, has a new album out. It's called Get Happy, which probably doesn't mean much more than irony, given Costello's dyspeptic disposition. Get Happy isn't likely to change anyone's opinion about Elvis Costello. It's still full of tough, quirky, interesting songs, although Costello's apparent refusal to include a lyric sheet seems downright perverse: His words are as interesting as any other aspect of his songwriting, yet his voice and the nature of the rock idiom make it extremely difficult to decipher them. Costello, to this taste, has a toneless, limited baritone and a style that rarely conveys much beyond hectoring. His expressionlessness is perhaps a limited metaphor for a sensibility overwhelmed by feeling, and it purges the slow songs of sentimentality. But it quickly becomes boring. Some wonderfully clever arrangements by The Attractions, Costello's band, by Nick Lowe, his producer — and by Costello himself — compensate for that boredom. Linda Ronstadt has recorded three Costello songs on her new Mad Love album — a selection that should make Costello a lot of money, even if he is said to be disgruntled at Miss Ronstadt's interpretations. Miss Ronstadt also included three songs by Mark Goldenberg, and gives "special thanks" on the jacket to Peter Bernstein; both men also play on the album. Goldenberg and Bernstein have a band of their own with the unfortunate name of The Cretones, which has now released its debut LP, The Cretones, on Planet records. The album contains the three songs covered by Miss Ronstadt — "Mad Love," "Justine" and "Cost of Love." Miss Ronstadt's album is generally taken to be her acknowledgement of new-wave rock. The Cretones are a Los Angeles new-wave band, and their demo tapes, full of a 60s kind of organ sound, sounded new wavish enough. For better or worse, though, the album sounds smoother and slicker than that; Miss Ronstadt's versions of their songs are a good deal tougher. Still, not all commercial success is new wave — far from it — and perhaps the Cretones are smart to polish their rough edges. It sounds like a loss. Pacific Stars And Stripes, March 16, 1980 John Rockwell reviews Get Happy!! and Linda Ronstadt's Mad Love. Images File:1980-03-16 Pacific Stars And Stripes clipping.jpg Clipping. Page scan. File:1980-03-16 Pacific Stars And Stripes page 15.jpg

External links

• Stripes.com
• Wikipedia: Stars and Stripes (newspaper)