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Why does THE STREET like Elvis Costello? Check out the cover art on his new Warner Bros. album, Spike, and you'll see. There's Elvis, merrily ensconced inside the table logo, a brash move only an ultimate talent like Costello could get away with.
But are we alone in feeling that Elvis is trying too hard to get away with everything. There's Irish traditional, jazz funk, even an instrumental straight out of musical theater on the new album. And there's so many different musicians and instruments that while you're prompted to stand up and yell, "Bravo:" you'd really just as soon yawn and say, "So what?"
Not that he's bitten off more than he can chew. There's just too much going on lyrically for anybody to digest, while the music lacks the punch of
Elvis's best records with the missing Attractions.
There are pleasures here, to be sure. The brassy, "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror," is an impassioned New Orleans-style remake (almost) of " Allison." And the single, " Veronica," one of the two McCartney-Costello collaborations on the album,recalls the bittersweet tunefulness of " Penny Lane"
and begs for a full album and tour with Costello and the ex-Beatle. But while Spike is at times remarkable, rarely is it much fun.
"The Comedians," Elvis's contribution to Roy Orbison's Mystery Girl (Virgin), is likewise too wordy to connect, especially for a revered vocalist whose simplicity of statement was a career trademark. Regarding the rest of this " new" Orbison LP, let us first say that when we were luckyenough to meet him, we were especially struck by his humility. He came across as a wonderful man who probably couldn't say no, a liability illustrated by the free production reign granted to T- Bone Burnett and Jeff Lynne.
For example, the single, " You Got It," an otherwise oustanding Orbison/Lynne/Petty song, is nearly sunk by Lynne's ELO/Wilbury production. Burnett similarly turns his idolatry into exploitation by encroaching on Orbison's spotlight instead of basking in it. That Orbison himself always knew what was best is demonstrated by his production of songs like "In the Real World." But Bono's production of his and The Edge's " She's a Mystery To Me" also works beautifully, probably because Orbison's other worldly voice is so compatible with U2's musical style.
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