Stylus, September 1, 2003: Difference between revisions
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<center><h3> Elvis Costello - | <center><h3> Elvis Costello - Punch The Clock</h3></center> | ||
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In 1983 Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley were two of Britain’s most prominent record producers. Elvis Costello knew them from his days at Two-Tone Records. Critics have speculated that Costello’s choice of Langer/Winstanley as producers reflected an attempt for another hit record (he got it-“[[Everyday I Write The Book]]” was one of his only American hits). However, it seems more like Costello’s continuation of his quest for a new sound. He wasn’t content resting on his laurels. The album, while far from perfect, offers interesting insight into the Attractions’ sound. | |||
''Punch The Clock''’s first three songs are its best. “[[Let Them All Talk]]” finds Costello and the Attractions as urgent as they have sounded since ''Get Happy!!'', with a throbbing bass and punchy horns in the intro and chorus and the song also sounds different than anything else they had recorded. The overdub cut-and-paste style is most successful on the fractured keyboards of “Everyday I Write The Book” and the highlighted bass and drums on “[[The Greatest Thing]]”. “[[Shipbuilding]]” had been a hit for Robert Wyatt, but Costello isn’t as well suited to sing a version of his own song. He fared much better as a balladeer on ''Imperial Bedroom''’s “[[Almost Blue (song)|Almost Blue]]”. The album veers sharply downhill from here; “[[TKO (Boxing Day)]]” has a nice chorus, courtesy of studio singers Afrodiziak (one of whom was later featured on Soul II Soul’s “Back To Life”) but the rest of the song is muddled. The biggest problem with side 2 is that Costello offers nothing truly memorable. There are some decent pop songs, but pure pop is not Costello’s forte. “[[Mouth Almighty]]” is one of the more pleasant of these songs, Langer and Winstanley give Costello’s voice room to breathe, whereas on many of the other songs he gets buried in the mix, and the tune features another superb [[Steve Nieve]] organ line. Costello states that “[[Pills And Soap|Pills and Soap]]” was influenced by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, but the influence is hard to discern apart from the drum-machine-like snapping. “[[The World And His Wife|The World and His Wife]]”, which closes the album, is a lyrically silly, bland satire of middle-class suburban families, but Costello’s delivery is spot-on as is the backing of the TKO Horns. | |||
''Punch The Clock'' is really nothing special, but enjoyable nonetheless. Costello added a few great numbers to his catalog along with a lot of inoffensive filler. It shouldn’t be the first Costello album you purchase, nor should it be the last. | |||
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'''Stylus, September 1, 2003 | |||
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[[Colin Beckett]] reviews ''[[Trust]]'', ''[[Punch The Clock]]'', ''[[King Of America]]'', ''[[Mighty Like A Rose]]'' and ''[[Kojak Variety]]''. | |||
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<center><h3>Elvis Costello - King Of America''' </h3></center> | |||
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After the dreadful, hopeless ''Goodbye Cruel World'', many people expected Elvis Costello’s next effort to be a pained, ultra-personal affair. But ''King of America'' is precisely the opposite. Here, Costello sounds genuinely joyful. There is not an album in his catalog in which EC sounds as jubilant as he does on this record. | After the dreadful, hopeless ''Goodbye Cruel World'', many people expected Elvis Costello’s next effort to be a pained, ultra-personal affair. But ''King of America'' is precisely the opposite. Here, Costello sounds genuinely joyful. There is not an album in his catalog in which EC sounds as jubilant as he does on this record. | ||
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While it was an important step in Costello’s career, like ''Punch The Clock'', ''King of America'' is a fun album that is packed with filler. As a Costello fan, it’s nice to hear him enjoying himself and fully fleshing-out his taste for early-American music, but for the uninitiated, it’s not an album to seek out. | While it was an important step in Costello’s career, like ''Punch The Clock'', ''King of America'' is a fun album that is packed with filler. As a Costello fan, it’s nice to hear him enjoying himself and fully fleshing-out his taste for early-American music, but for the uninitiated, it’s not an album to seek out. | ||
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<center><h3>'''Elvis Costello - Mighty Like A Rose '''</h3></center> | <center><h3>'''Elvis Costello - Mighty Like A Rose '''</h3></center> | ||
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''Mighty Like A Rose'' haunts the used-CD section of many American record shops (it was received much more favorably in Britain) and few fans speak favorably of the album. Costello himself ranks the album on the shortlist of his greatest works and blames its failure on the inability of fans to cope with his image change. At the time of the album’s release, Elvis sported a pseudo-late 60s, “serious artist” look- long scraggly hair and rather unappealing facial hair. Also, as on many of his late-80s albums, the lyrics were happier, less bitter, marking what NME called the change from “Mr. Horribly Marred to Mr. Happily Married.” Truly, what fans had trouble accepting was the change from brilliant lyricist and melody-writer to self-righteous, pretentious, MOR “composer.” Any Elvis Costello collection is complete without ''Mighty Like A Rose''. | ''Mighty Like A Rose'' haunts the used-CD section of many American record shops (it was received much more favorably in Britain) and few fans speak favorably of the album. Costello himself ranks the album on the shortlist of his greatest works and blames its failure on the inability of fans to cope with his image change. At the time of the album’s release, Elvis sported a pseudo-late 60s, “serious artist” look- long scraggly hair and rather unappealing facial hair. Also, as on many of his late-80s albums, the lyrics were happier, less bitter, marking what NME called the change from “Mr. Horribly Marred to Mr. Happily Married.” Truly, what fans had trouble accepting was the change from brilliant lyricist and melody-writer to self-righteous, pretentious, MOR “composer.” Any Elvis Costello collection is complete without ''Mighty Like A Rose''. | ||
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<center><h3>'''Elvis Costello - Kojak Variety'''</h3></center> | |||
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At the end of every year, The Onion publishes a list of the least essential records of the year. ''Kojak Variety'' would have fit nicely on the 1995 edition of the list. On ''Almost Blue'' Elvis attempted twelve country covers, while here he presents a set of fifteen interpretations in a variety of genres. | |||
It is disconcerting to hear Elvis sing the first two songs on the record, “[[Strange]]” and “[[Hidden Charms]]”, which, in their original forms, were sung by scratchy-voiced black men, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Willie Dixon respectively. “Strange” is one of the strongest on the record. Many of the album’s vocal performances lack emotion, Costello fares best with the fun, raucous songs and of these, “Strange” is the best. “Hidden Charms”, however, represents one of the worst aspects of the record. Many of the songs just sound too slick. While the idea of the record is Elvis-as-crooner, and many of the songs are supposed to sound slick, the sound just doesn’t take on “Hidden Charms.” Part of the, uh, charm of the original and Howlin’ Wolf version is the gritty vocal. Another song that suffers due to Elvis’s unemotional vocal performance is Bob Dylan’s “[[I Threw It All Away]].” The song just doesn’t cut it as light blues-pop. | |||
Mose Allison’s “[[Everybody's Crying Mercy|Everybody’s Cryin’ Mercy]]” is one of the few sad songs wherein Elvis captures the true emotion. The version, of course, doesn’t stand up to Allison’s or, even, James Brown’s. This is the album’s biggest problem. There is not one song that comes even close to the quality of the originals, and while, at least, Costello arranges the songs in a new way, he doesn’t make it interesting enough to keep you listening. Listening to his “[[Running Out Of Fools]]”, which is one of his better interpretations, just makes me want to pull out the Aretha Franklin or the Neko Case versions. | |||
The second half of the album ventures into clean contained blues-rock, which doesn’t stay very interesting. His “[[Pouring Water On A Drowning Man]]” is one-tenth as emotional as the James Carr original. Little Richard’s “[[Bama Lama Bama Loo]]” just sounds silly coming from Elvis. | |||
A cover of the Kinks’ Village Green-era single “[[Days]]” provides a satisfactory closing. The arrangement is more inventive than any of the others on the album, and the song is one of the few in Costello’s range. | |||
What can be said for the record is that it genuinely showcases Elvis love of music. He makes it clear that he adores each of these songs. But like ''Almost Blue'' his interpretations are ill advised. If nothing else, the album is a nice artifact for the rabid Costello fan. It offers insight into his influences and will open the listener to the superior versions of the songs. | |||
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==External links== | ==External links== | ||
*[http://www.stylusmagazine.com/ stylusmagazine.com] | *[http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/on_second_thought/elvis-costello-punch-the-clock.htm stylusmagazine.com] | ||
*[http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/on_second_thought/elvis-costello-mighty-like-a-rose.htm stylusmagazine.com] | |||
*[http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/on_second_thought/elvis-costello-kojak-variety.htm stylusmagazine.com] | |||
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylus_Magazine Wikipedia: Stylus Magazine] | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylus_Magazine Wikipedia: Stylus Magazine] | ||
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[[Category:Album reviews]] | [[Category:Album reviews]] | ||
[[Category:Trust reviews]] | [[Category:Trust reviews]] | ||
[[Category:Punch The Clock reviews]] | |||
[[Category:King Of America reviews]] | [[Category:King Of America reviews]] | ||
[[Category:Mighty Like A Rose reviews]] | [[Category:Mighty Like A Rose reviews]] | ||
[[Category:Kojak Variety reviews]] |
Latest revision as of 22:52, 24 August 2017
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