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More specifically, Costello is referring to modern rock music, which he thinks has lost its edge.
“I like rock & roll,” explains Costello. “I think if you lose the roll part, a lot of the fun goes out of it.”
“When people ask me ‘What’s your favourite record?’ I usually don’t name any electric-guitar records made in the last 30 years because the beat is so square.”
“I like things that float a bit or swing a bit, whether it’s rock & roll or actual jazz that swings, or even the way Hank Williams records lope.”
“You listen to records out of Nashville, they couldn’t float if you filled them full of water. They just don’t; they’re square and they sound like bad rock records from the Nineties. To my ear, they just do. But somebody likes them.”
Despite this, Costello makes clear that he isn’t trying to put down other artists.
“My grandfather – he was a trumpet player – never used to criticise other musicians. I’m trying to live by his example a little better these times and not be so critical of everybody else. But you can’t like everything.”
Costello is currently promoting his new album The Boy Named If. The new album has emerged with him as he came out of lockdown.
“I found myself staring at the water on Vancouver Island, not knowing when I would leave again, not knowing when we’d start work again.”
“I looked at a group of songs that I had begun that year, and I saw they were actually connected in some ways. They were, I hate to use the word ‘philosophical’, but they did have a look at life at different times.”
“The innocence of childhood, the confusion of young adulthood, and then looking back at these different things with a different perspective later.”
Elvis Costello and The Imposters’ The Boy Named If, can be listened to now on your prefered platform.
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