Stereo Review, July 1994: Difference between revisions
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<center><h3> | <center><h3> Elvis Costello, 1994's Model </h3></center> | ||
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<center> Parke Puterbaugh </center> | <center> Parke Puterbaugh </center> | ||
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''' Elvis Costello <br> | |||
Brutal Youth | |||
{{Bibliography text}} | {{Bibliography text}} | ||
Elvis Costello has been laying the groundwork for his latest record, ''Brutal Youth'', for a long time. From the dense, often labored song-craft of albums like the late-Eighties ''Spike'' and (especially 1991's ''Mighty like a Rose'' through noble failures like last year's ''The Juliet Letters'', Costello was guilty only of trying too hard to maintain his status as the pre-eminent songwriter of his time. Now, with ''Brutal Youth'', he refines and clarifies his art by focusing sharply on what he does best — boring through the thicket of human interactions with lacerating wit and a musical attack to match. Fittingly, the effort reunites him with the musicians who participated in his greatest successes: his old band, the Attractions (Steve Nieve, Pete Thomas, Bruce Thomas), and his erstwhile producer, Nick Lowe, who here shares bass duties. | |||
In fact, ''Brutal Youth'', which was co-produced by Costello and Mitchell Froom, winds up sounding like the Great Lost Elvis Costello and the Attractions Album, a worldly neo-punk broadside that could easily be filed between ''This Year's Model'' and ''Armed Forces''. Like those classics, it's a big chunk of a record to digest; its fifteen songs are as dense and unrelenting as anything Costello's ever recorded, more like novellas than the average songwriter's short stories. But only one clocks in at over 5 minutes (the moody, keyboard-drenched "Sulky Girl"), and the band runs as clean and hot as a well-tuned engine on such numbers as "20% Amnesia," a blast of rebel rock that features Costello in full-throttle scream throughout. | |||
The album's musical standout is "Clown Strike," a breezy soul strut that could easily merit a spot on a beach-music jukebox. Lyrically, Costello taps into a motherlode in "London's Brilliant Parade," a detailed catalog of urban obsessions defining his love/hate relationship with the city whose spirit he interprets with as sure a hand as Lou Reed dissects New York. It's a theme explored in depth on ''Brutal Youth'', as Costello, returning to the scene of the crime, sifts through the evidence of a profligate age and draws up a canny indictment in which even he does not stand unaccused. | |||
From start to finish, ''Brutal Youth'' reveals an artist fully in control. Amazingly, time hasn't mellowed Costello and the Attractions — it's made them that much more muscular and knowing. Costello even looks more like himself on the cover than he has in years — clean-shaven, horn-rimmed, back in fighting trim, face fixed in a delightfully jaundiced smirk. This Elvis, I'm pleased to note, has not left the building. | |||
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'''Elvis Costello<br> | |||
'''Brutal Youth | |||
'''Pony St.; Kinder Murder; 13 Steps Lead Down; This Is Hell; Clown Strike; You Tripped at Every Step; Still Too Soon to Know; 20% Amnesia; Sulky Girl; London's Brilliant Parade; My Science Fiction Twin; Rocking Horse Road; Just About Glad; All the Rage; Favorite Hour | |||
'''Warner Bros. 45535''' (57 min) | |||
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{{Bibliography notes}} | {{Bibliography notes}} | ||
{{Bibliography next | {{Bibliography next | ||
|prev = Stereo Review, | |prev = Stereo Review, August 1993 | ||
|next = Stereo Review, July 1995 | |next = Stereo Review, July 1995 | ||
}} | }} | ||
'''Stereo Review, July 1994 | '''Stereo Review, July 1994 | ||
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[[Parke Puterbaugh]] reviews ''[[Brutal Youth]]''. | [[Parke Puterbaugh]] reviews ''[[Brutal Youth]]'', which is named Best Of The Month. | ||
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[[image:1994-07-00 Stereo Review | [[image:1994-07-00 Stereo Review page 77.jpg|360px|border]] | ||
<br><small>Cover.</small> | <br><small>Page scan.</small> | ||
<small>Photo by [[Amelia Stein]].</small><br> | |||
[[image:1994-07-00 Stereo Review photo 01 as.jpg|360px]] | |||
<small>Cover.</small><br> | |||
[[image:1994-07-00 Stereo Review cover.jpg|x120px]] | |||
{{Bibliography notes footer}} | {{Bibliography notes footer}} | ||
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==External links== | ==External links== | ||
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereo_Review Wikipedia: Stereo Review] | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereo_Review Wikipedia: Stereo Review] | ||
*[http://www.worldradiohistory.com/HiFI-Stereo-Review.htm worldradiohistory.com{{t}}][https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-HiFI-Stereo/90s/Stereo-Review-1994-07.pdf {{t}}] | |||
*[https://archive.org/details/stereo-review-1994-7-jul/page/n85/mode/2up archive.org] | |||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stereo Review 1994-07-00}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Stereo Review 1994-07-00}} | ||
[[Category:Bibliography]] | [[Category:Bibliography]] | ||
[[Category:Bibliography | [[Category:Bibliography 1994]] | ||
[[Category:Stereo Review| Stereo Review 1994-07-00]] | [[Category:Stereo Review| Stereo Review 1994-07-00]] | ||
[[Category:Magazine articles]] | [[Category:Magazine articles]] | ||
[[Category:Album reviews]] | [[Category:Album reviews]] | ||
[[Category:Brutal Youth reviews]] | [[Category:Brutal Youth reviews]] | ||
Latest revision as of 12:51, 1 September 2023
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