The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.
Elvis Costello And The Attractions
Goodbye Cruel World
A bitter-sweet title for a bitter-sweet album, but one laced perfectly with Costello's inevitable humour. Goodbye Cruel World is Elvis at his most biting, musically and lyrically. Even the cover is worth sticking on the wall just for itself.
And the songs? "Room With No Number" combines bouncy pop backing with deceptively black lyrics, "I Wanna Be Loved" has THE coolest sax solo, while "The Deportees Club" just drives on and on like a frantic roller-coaster... tightly controlled but on the verge of careering off in all directions at any moment. The whole thing is finished off with the quiet venom of "Peace On Earth"; the heavy irony of the lyrics staying with you till long after the album has finished. Sad, depressing, but brilliant.