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Throughout his career, Costello has also stood out for an erudite fork tongue and has relentlessly exercised his broad vocabulary to create pertinent lyrics and razor-sharp witticisms. ''National Ransom'' is no different, its title track an assault on Wall Street and a militant anthem for the working classes: ''"Mother's in the kitchen picking bones for breakfast / There's a wolf at the window with a ravening maw."'' Costello is equally adept at weaving absorbing narratives, with "Jimmie Standing in the Rain" tackling the nouveaux Depression through a struggling musician and "You Hung the Moon" visiting a family attempting to make contact with the ghost of a fallen soldier from the first World War. Though there are tracks that are hard to pin down thematically, even with the help of footnotes attached to the lyrics sheet that serve to timestamp each track, the stories are second to none. Costello is a seasoned lyricist, clearly a very smart man, and his prose throughout ''National Ransom'' is a lustrous testament to that. | Throughout his career, Costello has also stood out for an erudite fork tongue and has relentlessly exercised his broad vocabulary to create pertinent lyrics and razor-sharp witticisms. ''National Ransom'' is no different, its title track an assault on Wall Street and a militant anthem for the working classes: ''"Mother's in the kitchen picking bones for breakfast / There's a wolf at the window with a ravening maw."'' Costello is equally adept at weaving absorbing narratives, with "Jimmie Standing in the Rain" tackling the nouveaux Depression through a struggling musician and "You Hung the Moon" visiting a family attempting to make contact with the ghost of a fallen soldier from the first World War. Though there are tracks that are hard to pin down thematically, even with the help of footnotes attached to the lyrics sheet that serve to timestamp each track, the stories are second to none. Costello is a seasoned lyricist, clearly a very smart man, and his prose throughout ''National Ransom'' is a lustrous testament to that. | ||
There are very few artists with the desire to experiment with their sound during the twilight of their careers, and even fewer with the ability to do so convincingly, but Costello does just that with this enchanting, parti-colored medley. It may not be his magnum opus, despite "Church Underground" and "Five Small Words" recalling vintage Costello at his finest, but ''National Ransom'' is a stellar entry in his already hefty canon. | |||
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Latest revision as of 07:40, 17 May 2019
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