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I hadn’t realised what a strange cluster of accents there is in Elvis Costello’s voice.
Sentences end with the soft fluted lilt of Ireland. A Liverpudlian rhythm breaks up his words. Most of the delivery is loud, assertive southerner, sometimes nearly a bark. An occasional Atlanticism peeks through.
I’ve not heard a voice so curious since I heard Grace Jones speak.
‘Erm… you have different reasons for liking things I suppose. ‘I'll Wear It Proudly’ is my favourite song on the record and maybe ‘American Without Tears’. But I like things that are on there just for the feeling – like ‘Eisenhower Blues’ and some of the fast things. I like little bits of musical things, details. But there’s a lot of songs. I sort of forget them.”
‘King Of America’ is not a record that makes you want to forget.
Almost an hour long, chiselled and grappled into a sparse, hurtful, glittery sequence, the LP isn’t a difficult set to digest; but it’s absolutely clear about offering no crumbs of concession. It’s Costello standing up for his songwriter’s art, insisting on all the virtues in an intellectual twist of the heart.
Almost two years after the hasty and embattled ‘Goodbye Cruel World’, Costello’s return to such complete strength is almost alarming. The songs on ‘King Of America’ recorded in comparatively primitive conditions in Los Angeles but performed with an astounding sense of personality, are a thinker’s archive of rare words, flashbulb pictures long sweet melodies … the accustomed Costello show, but sewn together with a new, finer touch.
His ear and eye have never needled away as sharply.
Was this collection – so long in arriving – written and polished over a long period?
“No, I thought about it over a long period. I didn't stop writing…”
Contrary to popular rumour.
“Yeah, absolutely contrary. The first song I wrote was “Indoor Fireworks” at the beginning of last year, and the last was ‘Suit Of Lights’ which I did just before the last period of recording. We did three bouts of recording spread over three months. I didn't want to be in California for any length of time, so we did it two weeks at a time.
I went to California to produce the Coward Brothers record, about last February and I had about four of the songs on the album then. In the interim I wrote a lot more.”
Can’t stop writing songs, eh?
“I can do if I want to. Artificially. I didn't let myself write any songs before “Goodbye Cruel World” and then I did them really quickly, which I don’t think was a very good idea. Maybe I should have worked on them longer.
“It’s something that goes on. Like, can you stop thinking?”
Yes, but I have to think about doing it first.
remainder of article to follow
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