|
In January 2020, Elvis Costello picked up the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Grammy for Look Now, a full 40 years after he first troubled US music industry voters. On that (much earlier) occasion, Armed Forces had earned him a nod in the Best New Artist category, alongside fellow nominees The Cars, Chris Rea, Toto and eventual winners A Taste Of Honey.
The disco duo's triumph was seemingly predicated on the declaration in their big hit single that they were "gonna boogie oogie oogie 'til you just can't boogie no more." That proved to be not an especially lengthy period of time, as the law of diminishing returns saw them disband three years later, whereas Elvis continues to take his wares to market with resounding fanfare.
Costello's 31st studio album, Hey Clockface, arrived at the end of October, followed seven days later by this lavish reconfiguration of his third; a record which, as the Grammy nomination attests, emphatically elevated him to the international stage. It also gave him his first UK Top 10 single, although "Oliver's Army" stalled at No 2, beaten to the top spot first by the Bee Gees and then a leap-frogging Gloria Gaynor.
It remains his all-time best seller, the sole title in his catalogue to reach platinum status, and at least half of its original dozen tracks still make regular appearances in live sets — as does the cover version parachuted into the US permutation of the album, more of which later. Such a reputation makes it a shoo-in for a deluxe makeover, and in terms of packaging (and price tag) it dwarfs previous reissues, also curated by Costello himself, in 1993 and 2002.
Therein, however, lies a bugbear. Having already revisited the vaults twice, exactly what's left in the way of previously unreleased recordings with which Elvis can entice buyers? The answer is nothing, studio-wise, the earlier versions having scooped up all existing outtakes and demos but included again here, though among the compendium's nine separate slabs of vinyl you'll find 23 live performances available for home consumption for the first time.
Beginning with the album itself, months before its release in January 1979 Costello had teased the music press with whispers that he was working on a record to be called Emotional Fascism, a phrase that would subsequently feature on adverts and posters for late '78 live shows. It would appear, though, that it was a concept not written in stone.
"Two or three half-formed notions collided uneasily in that title, although I would never have admitted to anything as self-conscious as a 'theme' running through the songs," he wrote in the 2002 reissue's sleevenotes. "Any patterns that might have emerged did so as the record was completed or with benefit of hindsight."
Nonetheless, its contents are awash with military motifs, in pointed titles such as "Goon Squad," "Senior Service," "Green Shirt" and "Two Little Hitlers" — and, of course, "Oliver's Army," with its oblique allusions to imperialism, Cromwell's New Model Army, the Cold War and the presence of British troops in Northern Ireland. Not the typical stuff of hit singles, certainly when held up against the romantic battlefield detritus of "Tragedy" or "I Will Survive," the songs with which it jockeyed for position at the top of the charts.
Setting aside the F-word in the album's working title, Armed Forces contains some of Costello's most affecting emotional ruminations; the lachrymose love affair post-mortem at the heart of second single "Accidents Will Happen" is a torch lament in all but name, and "Party Girl" is a masterclass in frustrated yearning. All the above are played with an eloquence and intimate understanding of the lyrical subject matter by The Attractions in a mindset patently removed from the frenetic blood rush of the record's predecessor, This Year's Model.
It's undeniably The Attractions' show on the collection's most exciting live disc, a 13-song set recorded at Holland's Pinkpop festival in May '79. Just three Armed Forces tracks are aired (the same number as "previews" for Costello's next long player, Get Happy!!), Goon Squad and Green Shirt especially impressive in their ferocity.
Adhering to the "complete" claim in the collection's title, the last of the three 7" discs is a repressing of Nick Lowe's single American Squirm, recorded during the Armed Forces sessions and released two months prior to the album in November '78. While Costello's backing vocals are high in the mix of the A-side, it's the flip that's a bona fide Elvis track, he and The Attractions credited as Nick Lowe And His Sound on a cover of the producer's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding." As mentioned earlier, it later appeared on the US version of Armed Forces as a replacement for "Sunday's Best," a song first offered to Ian Dury and deemed by US label Columbia to be "too English" for listeners across the pond. It's now the song Costello has performed live most frequently, more than any of his own.
Rounding out the package are some non-musical exclusives: new EC sleevenotes, facsimiles of his original writing pads, posters, postcards and specially commissioned pulp novel covers inspired by various songs' titles. It all makes for a busy bundle that will undoubtedly appeal to collectors, although it's been greeted with criticism from many fans on social media, unhappy that a CD alternative isn't on offer and baulking at the cost — a wallet-thrashing £250, if you plump for the top-of-the-range coloured vinyl edition.
Still, it's a magnificent-looking item, assembled with no shortage of care and attention. And seeing as, since the mid-90s, there's been an award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package, who's to say Armed Forces won't finally win the Grammy it was denied all those years ago?
|
