|
Welcome to the world of emotional fascism. The new Elvis has taken the fascistic chill of England's National Front (a neo-Nazi group intent on saving the white world for themselves) and put it to a beat as insistent as the sound of marching feet in the shadow of Nuremburg.
Costello has always had the fisheye world view of a Captain Bligh or a George Patton. To paraphrase Jim Morrison, he wants the world and he wants it his way now. Costello's images never sit easy. He writes perfect rock 'n' roll songs with pictures that make you queasy.
He also glaringly exposes perhaps the biggest weakness of music in the late 1970s. It doesn't say anything. Costello and fellow British rocker Tom Robinson are fighting the menace of the new fascism despite the threat of personal injury.
He is taking his music to the people on the street and putting everything into the message. Stateside, the tales he tells are cold and ofttimes indecipherable, but Elvis could care less. He knows he's good.
Into all 11 of his original songs on Armed Forces, a thread of anti-militarism is woven. The singer vows to go down fighting the mindless discipline of the military state.
Nazi images surface repeatedly, culminating in the eerie warning of "Two Little Hitlers" (a tale of two fuhrers, each with his finger on a button that will end the world). Along the way, he takes us through "Accidents Will Happen," "Oliver's Army" (a pulsating nonadvertisement for a professional military force) and "Goon Squad" (with the ultimate declaration of sadistic independence, "I won't let anyone make a lampshade out of me..").
"Big Boys" and "Green Shirt" caricature the humorless mystique of the military man. "Moods for Moderns" is disco for the disciplined; fortunately, you can only dance to half of it.
But the whole thing clicks together like a machine. No matter how pointed the lyrics are, the songs rock steady like a metronome, then leap from place to place with time changes nearly too quick for the ear to follow.
Nick Lowe, a producer and budding pop star in his own right, provides the LP's closing number, "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?" The song is so trite and so perfectly electric that it closes Armed Forces like optimistic thunder, Maybe Elvis hasn't given up hope after all.
Costello and his band, the Attractions, have moved miles since 1978's This Year's Model, a record with less energy than the U.S. Congress. It was a retarded follow-up to the brilliant My Aim Is True.
Armed Forces is the promise, part two.
This album isn't exactly rated X, but parental discretion is advised. If you're not careful, it might make your children think for a change.
The King is dead. Long live the King.
| 
