UNSW Tharunka, April 19, 1994

Bibliography   72 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 UK & Ireland weeklies UK & Ireland magazines UK & Ireland newspapers US newspapers US rock magazines US music magazines US magazines US alternative weeklies European magazines European newspapers Canada  •  Mexico  •  Asia Australia  •  New Zealand South America  •  Africa Blogs  •  Fanzines  •  Books Online publications UNSW Tharunka   1978 April 3 1978 August 21 1979 March 12 1982 July 19  1983 May 2  1983 August 15 1986 June 10 1986 July 29 1989 April 11 1991 August 19  1994 April 19 Australia publications  Newspapers Adelaide Advertiser The Australian Brisbane Courier-Mail Canberra Times Lismore Northern Star Melbourne Age Melbourne Herald Sun Melbourne Observer Nation Review Newcastle Herald Queensland Times Sydney Daily Mirror Sydney Daily Telegraph Sydney Morning Herald Sydney Sun-Herald Victor Harbor Times West Australian West Australian Sunday Times Magazines ABC Radio 24 Hours Adelaide Review Audio Technology Australian Musician Australian Nat. Univ. Woroni Australian Women's Weekly Black+White BMA Magazine The Bulletin Countdown Crowd DB Magazine Drum Media EON Extra Follow Me Gentlemen Inpress Juice Juke Melbourne Beat Men's Style Australia Mint Magazine The Music On The Street Rage Reverb Magazine RAM Reader's Digest Revolver Rhythms Rip It Up Roadrunner Rolling Stone Semper Street Fever Sydney Star Observer Time Off UNSW Tharunka Who Online publications AU Review Australian Stage Music Feeds Scenestr Tone Deaf — Brutal Youth Elvis Costello Julian Klettenberg Scanning errors uncorrected... It is said that the Punk movement of 1976/77 took all the conventions of music and violently turned them on their head, reshaping not only musical styles but also a great part of popular culture: comedy, the visual arts and literature all felt its impact. Aside from perhaps The Sex Pistols and The Clash, the punks are now largely forgotten and it is those artists whom they influenced that are more readily identifiable as the ones who drew upon Punk's ideal and made records that would define the sound of popular music for the late 1970s and much of the 1980s: artists such as Patti Smith, Television. Talking Heads, The Jam, The Police and Elvis Costello and The Attractions. The records made by these post-Punk artists took Punk's minimalist approach to instrumentation and married to it a lyrical style of sharply contrasting intensity and complexity. Whereas the punks had been screaming "No future! No future!," the lyrics featured on these new records were becoming a form of urban poetry, often combining pop's traditional "catchiness" with perverse imagery and cutting cynicism. Few bands characterise this new musical approach in the way that Elvis Costello and his band, The Attractions, do. Not as overtly commercial as many of the later New Wave hands, Elvis Costello and The Attractions retained something of Punk's harder edge with short sharp songs (generally under three minutes, some closer to two) that featured lyrics like "They beat him up until the teardrops start / But he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart" ("Watching The Detectives"). Beginning with the brilliant My Aim Is True, Costello and the Attractions released album after album of superbly crafted songs, including Armed Forces, This Year's Model and Get Happy!!. Costello released his last album with the Attractions, Blood & Chocolate, in 1986. Costello's post-Attractions career has suffered somewhat from mixed commercial and critical success: beginning with the release of The King Of America, Costello has experimented with a variety of increasingly diverse musical approaches, which culminated with last year's The Juliet Letters, a collaboration between Costello and The Brodsky Quartet (the album featured only Costello's vocals with string accompaniment). Now Elvis Costello returns with a new album and with The Attractions (even though they are not billed as such)_ Costello's decision to work once again with The Attractions, and the result-ing album that they have recorded (with original producer Nick Lowe playing bass.on seven of the album's tracks ), can be likened to the hackga-basics approach taken by Thr Beatles in recording Abbey Road after the meandenrig and divisive White Album and Let it Be sessions. The new album, Brutal Youth, recalls the vitality and sparsity of the early Attractions albuals,10 is clearly the creation of a tnatureTsongwriter and not simply a rehash of a proven formula. At times listening to Brutal Youth., one forget that more than fifteen years have pi Nsed since "Alison", 'Oliver's Army" and "f pimp It Up" were singles: just as those songs are timekw, so too are the fifteen tracks on this album. The opening cut 'Tony SC has all the urgency of "High Fidelity" with its driving bass and heavi4 syncopated and frenetic drumming_ Withsono like "You Tripped At Every Step". Gistala once again displays thtstylistic diversity that has can tinned to set him apart from other performers, Set against "Pony St.", "20% Amnesia" and the jingle "13 Steps Lead Down", which it along in a fairly traditional fashion, "You Tripped At Every Step" is notable for the eloquence of its arrangement: it is the music itself and the veal harmonies, as much as the lyrics, which alum,- the powerful emotional picture of the piece. In many ways Brutal Youth is vintage Elvis Costello: however, that is not to say that it is a step backwards. The fact that Costello has chosen to revisit the musical territory upon which much of his substantial reputation rests in no way discredits or dismisses his recent work: after The Juliet Letters, Brutal Youth is probably the most logical step to take. The album owes its brilliance less to the return of The Attractions, than to the emotional responses it elicits. Costello's work defies the pop music tradition of making records that result in nothing but mindless joy. With Brutal Youth, Elvis Costello truly created music to listen to. Scanning errors uncorrected... Tharunka, April 19, 1994 Julian Klettenberg reviews Brutal Youth. Images Clipping. Cover and page scan.

External links

• Tharunka.arc.unsw.edu.au
• Wikipedia: UNSW Tharunka
• nla.gov.au