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The British music scene in the late 70s was an angry, chaotic mass of bands and artists looking for a way out of an apathetic, dead-end world or just reveling in the hedonism of the time.
The Sex Pistols and their numerous imitators used their music to create a cold, brutal carnival of hate. The Clash dedicated themselves to tearing down the old order and building a brave new world. The Ramones, Buzzcocks and others merely applied the buzzsaw motifs and anti-establishment attitudes of punk to standard three-chord rock.
From the midst of this musical anarchy emerged a singularly talented singer-songwriter influenced as much by the mainstream tradition of The Beatles and Bob Dylan as by his peers' anger and frustration. Born Declan MacManus, the angry young Irishman changed his name to Elvis Costello as an oblique pun on pop culture (and, doubtless, to take the ethnic edge off his moniker). His debut album, 1977's My Aim is True, was an impressive mix of tuneful pop and disturbing lyrical imagery. "Alison," a ballad not nearly as tender as it sounds, was a hit in England, although it took a sanitized cover version by Linda Ronstadt to get it onto the American charts.
Over a decade and 15 albums later, Costello is all but an institution. While experimenting (at times unsuccessfully) with soul, country and American and British folk music, he has never completely deserted his power-pop roots.
He has written a handful of great songs (including "Alison," the politically charged "Olive's Army" and the dizzying paranoid pop tune "Beyond Belief"), and a huge amount of good ones. His eccentricity keeps him interesting, although his inconsistency sometimes mars his efforts.
Costello's latest album, Spike, is as stylistically erratic as any of his previous works, but it avoids the problems of some former failures with consistently strong songwriting. The first single "Veronica," Costello's first stateside hit in years, is an absolutely perfect piece of energetic pop-rock. Co-written by Paul McCartney, the song is relentlessly melodic and, in its depiction of an old woman re-living her past, affectingly compassionate.
The guitar-driven "Veronica" is not representative of most of Spike's tracks, however. Several of them, like much of Costello's recent work, are slower and more pensive. `Tramp the Dirt Down" and "Any King's Shilling" are quiet songs that use traditional Irish instrumentation. The moody ballads "God's Comic" and "Baby Plays Around" rely on acoustic guitars and basses And several songs, including "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror" and the instrumental "Stalin Malone," are powered by the jazzy horns of The Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
Although none of the album's 14 tracks are complete throwaways, a few stand out as instant Costello classics. Besides "Veronica," the haunting "Let Him Dangle," the disconcerting "Satellite" and the bluntly cynical "...This Town..." rank with the best things he's ever written.
Costello is at least as notable for his lyrics as his melodies. His gift for wordplay and well-constructed imagery is a key part of his talent. On Spike, he shows that neither his lyrical expertise nor his anger have dissipated over the past decade.
"Tramp the Dirt Down," a chilling attack on Margaret Thatcher's insensitivity to Britain's needy, is an effective political dissection that has Costello telling the prime minister: "When they finally put you in the ground, / I'll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down."
"God's Comic," finds God in a particularly unpleasant mood: "I've been wading through all this unbelievable junk and wondering if I should have given the world to the monkeys." As the song concludes, the embittered Big Guy sneers "I'm going up to the pole where you folks die of cold / I might be gone for a while if you need me."
And "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror," a song about conceit and deceit, contains one of the most vicious lines in recent memory: "One day you're going to have to face / A deep dark truthful mirror / And it's going to tell you things that I still love you too much to say."
It would be a major disservice to exclude some mention of Costello's voice. He is an enormously talented singer, and can convey spite, pain, fear or joy with affecting clarity. Spike gives him the opportunity to show off his abilities in a number of styles, and he more than rises to the occasion.
Spike is proof positive that one of the most interesting voices of the 70s and 80s still has a lot to say. Musically diverse, the album is held together by its consistent dark humour and melodic innovation. The quintessential angry young man of the 70s has become the hardened sage of today.
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