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Several ambitious pop albums after his unsuccessful 1981 country album, Almost Blue, Englishman Elvis Costello returns to his favorite music with the all-American King of America.
The results are far more satisfying than on that earlier album. Indeed, this is certainly Costello's best since 1982's Imperial Bedroom and in some respects even surpasses that fine album. The keys here are unfiltered emotion, uncomplicated arrangements and exquisite chops.
Costello.explores his usual themes here, with an emphasis on the nature of love/hate relationships, especially his recently dissolved marriage and his relationship with America, a place that both dazzles and disgusts him.
On the moving, stately opening cut, "Brilliant Mistake," Costello explores visions of an America "where they pour Coca-Cola just like vintage wine," that is "just a boulevard of broken dreams / A trick they do with mirrors and with chemicals." As he wistfully sums up: "It was a fine idea at the time / Now it's a brilliant mistake."
Costello also traces the decay of love through the album, especially in the lovely ballad "Indoor Fireworks," where he sings of a love affair in which "sometimes we'd fight in public, darling / With very little cause / But different kinds of sparks would fly / When we got on our own behind closed doors." But by the end he concludes that he must "build a bonfire of my dreams / And burn a broken effigy of me and you."
Though Costello often has his problems with America, he has nothing but love for one aspect: its music. American country music dominates most songs, even the handful of rockers.
Recorded live in the studio by a hand-picked crew of Nashville veterans, only four of the 15 cuts really rock; most are ballads, with Costello accompanied minimally by acoustic and light electric guitars, mandolin, accordion, brushed drums and string or electric bass.
Despite the near-absence of Costello's brilliant regular group, the Attractions, the musicianship is impeccable throughout. Jerry Scheff's walking bass and Jim Keltner's simple drums are a pleasure every time, especially on the rockabilly "Lovable"; guitarist James Burton's dobro work on "Our Little Angel" and his understated, beautiful electric solos and fills throughout are thrilling; and Jo-El Sonnier's piano accordion accompaniment on "American Without Tears" transforms the song into a showpiece worthy of the Band.
But despite the straightforward songs, Costello's lyrics still sound, as he says in "Our Little Angel," "like a chain saw running through a dictionary." He jumps from metaphor to simile without worrying if the listener is still with him.
As in the past, the weak link in all of this is Costello's voice. In contrast to his heroes, Patsy Cline and George Jones, Costello has only a few vocal moves and an extremely limited tonal vocabulary. Still, he does have two things in common with those two great singers: passion and sincerity. His strangled vocals are still stunningly passionate, as are his more restrained, remarkably intimate, whispers.
His "Everyday I Write the Book" in 1983 not-withstanding, Costello seems unlikely ever to become the king of America's charts. But King of America's title and musical directness seem to mock that ambition; Costello aspires to a more lasting sovereignty.
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