Record Mirror, January 9, 1982: Difference between revisions
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There's the early angry Elvis, now the least convincing in the pack. This one attempts to wind up the band to urgency after each ballad. He performs all the old rockers, from classic "[[Watching The Detectives|Detectives]]" to recent "[[King Horse]]," in a perfunctory bleat that soon comes to seem more like whining than passion. In fact, the old angry Costello has been severely cramped by the new balladeer, both in his ability to convince and in his ability to sing the harsher material. | There's the early angry Elvis, now the least convincing in the pack. This one attempts to wind up the band to urgency after each ballad. He performs all the old rockers, from classic "[[Watching The Detectives|Detectives]]" to recent "[[King Horse]]," in a perfunctory bleat that soon comes to seem more like whining than passion. In fact, the old angry Costello has been severely cramped by the new balladeer, both in his ability to convince and in his ability to sing the harsher material. | ||
A few months in Nashville has turned Elvis into a self - confident but self - conscious vocal stylist. As a result all the material from ''Almost Blue'' (and songs in a similar vein) succeed. The rest suffers. Meanwhile Elvis is up there whipping through Elvis, country singer, Elvis, punk hero, and Elvis, literate if wordy composer of ''Trust'' and the six or so new songs he debuts tonight. His pacing of these different styles is dreadful or demanding, depending on how you look at it. Most new fans wait for the hits, the old ones try to digest the new numbers. | A few months in Nashville has turned Elvis into a self-confident but self-conscious vocal stylist. As a result all the material from ''Almost Blue'' (and songs in a similar vein) succeed. The rest suffers. Meanwhile Elvis is up there whipping through Elvis, country singer, Elvis, punk hero, and Elvis, literate if wordy composer of ''Trust'' and the six or so new songs he debuts tonight. His pacing of these different styles is dreadful or demanding, depending on how you look at it. Most new fans wait for the hits, the old ones try to digest the new numbers. | ||
Each time either faction looks like they're succeeding, Elvis changes style. Meanwhile the Attractions, seemingly a bit rusty, decide to compensate by overstating everything, aided by an energetic lighting rig that's busy doing the same. | Each time either faction looks like they're succeeding, Elvis changes style. Meanwhile the Attractions, seemingly a bit rusty, decide to compensate by overstating everything, aided by an energetic lighting rig that's busy doing the same. Bruce Thomas makes his characteristic runs up and down the bass but soon seems to be doing little else while Steve Naive is all flourish and no soul. The mixture of classical flourish and country understatement is a triumph on ''Almost Blue''. Understatement doesn't come into it tonight. | ||
So Elvis runs through it all, apologises for his nervousness, does three encores and leaves. Elvis' failures are far more easy than most anybody's successess. But he needs to reconcile his love of variety with a delivery that can give his music coherence within that variety. Roll on the Albert Hall. | So Elvis runs through it all, apologises for his nervousness, does three encores and leaves. Elvis' failures are far more easy than most anybody's successess. But he needs to reconcile his love of variety with a delivery that can give his music coherence within that variety. Roll on the Albert Hall. |
Revision as of 16:47, 19 February 2018
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