Uncut, November 1998: Difference between revisions
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<center><h3> The craftsmen's contract</h3></center> | <center><h3> The craftsmen's contract</h3></center> | ||
<center>''' | <center>''' Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach ''' / Painted From Memory </center> | ||
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<center> Ian MacDonald </center> | <center> Ian MacDonald </center> | ||
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{{3stars}} | |||
''' Two giants of popular song collaborate | |||
{{Bibliography text}} | {{Bibliography text}} | ||
Only five years ago in the UK, it needed to be reaffirmed that Burt Bacharach is one of the greatest popular musicians of the second half of this century. Not that this was news; we knew that 35 years ago when those wonderful Dionne Warwick singles were coming out and other artists were fighting to release cover versions in their own home markets. But times and sensibilities changed after 1976, and, by the late-Eighties, Bacharach was seen, if seen at all, as part of the ironically tolerated Easy Listening aesthetic — soft-focus, sentimental, air-conditioned condominium music. | Only five years ago in the UK, it needed to be reaffirmed that Burt Bacharach is one of the greatest popular musicians of the second half of this century. Not that this was news; we knew that 35 years ago when those wonderful Dionne Warwick singles were coming out and other artists were fighting to release cover versions in their own home markets. But times and sensibilities changed after 1976, and, by the late-Eighties, Bacharach was seen, if seen at all, as part of the ironically tolerated Easy Listening aesthetic — soft-focus, sentimental, air-conditioned condominium music. | ||
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That studious quality obtrudes here. Ever poetic conceit — larceny in "My Thief," mathematics in "The Long Division," boxing in "The Sweetest Punch" — is strenuously worked in what amounts to an intellectual substitute for going to the emotional garden and cutting it fresh. Who wants to hang around while every conceivable association is lifted from the thesaurus and laid carefully in place like some lyrical brick path? To cap it, there's the disincentive of Costello's voice, with it's phoney American brogue and harshly ballooning ''vibrato''. | That studious quality obtrudes here. Ever poetic conceit — larceny in "My Thief," mathematics in "The Long Division," boxing in "The Sweetest Punch" — is strenuously worked in what amounts to an intellectual substitute for going to the emotional garden and cutting it fresh. Who wants to hang around while every conceivable association is lifted from the thesaurus and laid carefully in place like some lyrical brick path? To cap it, there's the disincentive of Costello's voice, with it's phoney American brogue and harshly ballooning ''vibrato''. | ||
Nostalgia for Dionne and Dusty grows as this album wends on its way. | Nostalgia for Dionne and Dusty grows as this album wends on its way. The three stars are for Bacharach for staying true to himself. | ||
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[[image:1998-11-00 Uncut page 90.jpg| | [[image:1998-11-00 Uncut page 90.jpg|360px|border]] | ||
<br><small>Page scan.</small> | <br><small>Page scan.</small> | ||
[[image:1998-11-00 Uncut cover.jpg|x120px]] | [[image:1998-11-00 Uncut cover.jpg|x120px|border]] | ||
<br><small>Cover.</small> | <br><small>Cover.</small> | ||
Revision as of 13:34, 27 September 2016
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